NASA Declared Starship Landing Too Risky... But SpaceX’s New HLS Design Changed Everything

NASA Declared Starship Landing Too Risky... But SpaceX’s New HLS Design Changed Everything
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NASA Declared Starship Landing Too Risky... But SpaceX’s New HLS Design Changed Everything
The space community is buzzing again. SpaceX and NASA have just found themselves in a heated disagreement, this time over the manual control system for the Starship Human Landing System.
The issue was revealed in a newly released 50-page report published just yesterday. And according to what’s inside, this debate could end up delaying the very first test flight of Starship HLS.
So stay tuned, we’re breaking down all of this hot news in today’s episode of Alpha Tech.
NASA Declared Starship Landing Too Risky... But SpaceX’s New HLS Design Changed Everything
On March 10, the NASA Office of Inspector General released a roughly 50-page report titled “NASA’s Management of the Human Landing System Contracts.”
The goal of the report is to review and evaluate the Human Landing System, or HLS, contracts that NASA has awarded to SpaceX and Blue Origin.
But almost immediately after the document went public, people noticed a major piece of drama buried inside. It reveals a growing disagreement between NASA and SpaceX, and it directly involves the Starship HLS.
At the center of the debate is a key question. Does SpaceX’s proposed lunar landing approach for Starship HLS actually meet the intent of NASA’s manual control requirement?
According to the report, the situation is not moving in a good direction.
The issue comes down to philosophy. When SpaceX developed the SpaceX Dragon, the company designed it to be highly autonomous. Dragon can dock with a space station automatically, with astronauts mostly supervising the process through touchscreen displays.
NASA Declared Starship Landing Too Risky... But SpaceX’s New HLS Design Changed Everything
SpaceX wants to apply a similar concept to Starship HLS. Their plan is to rely on a fully automated control system, monitored through touchscreens, allowing the vehicle to handle complex operations on its own, from docking with Orion to eventually landing on the Moon.
NASA, however, is not fully on board with that approach.
On page four of the report, in the section titled “What We Found,” the document clearly states that NASA and SpaceX disagree on whether the provider is meeting the intent of the agency’s manual control requirement.
In other words, NASA wants Starship HLS to include true manual control capability. Astronauts must be able to override the automated system and directly control the spacecraft’s trajectory at any stage of the mission, especially during the critical final descent to the lunar surface.
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