NASA aims to land astronauts on the moon by 2027, relying on SpaceX's Starship. Despite three unsuccessful launches, experts highlight progress in its engineering. The most recent Starship flight reached space but ended in disintegration during reentry. Elon Musk noted improvements in this launch, while NASA remains optimistic about future tests. Different versions of Starship will be used for the lunar landing, and SpaceX will investigate and resolve issues identified during the flights, which hopes to keep the ambitious timeline intact against challenges from competitors like China.
"Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over last flight! Also, no significant loss of heat shield tiles during ascent."
"The first lunar landing will use a different version of Starship for its human landing system than the early developmental version tested."
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