SpaceX Starship Human Landing System

Starship HLS is SpaceX's lunar landing spacecraft under development for NASA's Artemis campaign. Its architecture uses Starship tankers and a depot to aggregate cryogenic propellant in Earth orbit. NASA's October 2026 plan has the fueled lander dock with Orion in Earth orbit and propel the combined spacecraft toward low lunar orbit; two astronauts would then descend to the surface and return to Orion. A separate Starship Version 3 test article is planned for docking demonstrations on Artemis III. An uncrewed lunar demonstration and NASA certification must precede crewed landings, whose provider assignments remain undecided.