Starship HLS
 Rendering of a future Starship HLS on the Moon | |
| Manufacturer | SpaceX |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United States |
| Operator | SpaceX |
| Applications | Lunar lander |
| Specifications | |
| Spacecraft type | Crewed, reusable |
| Crew capacity | 2–4 |
| Volume | 614 m3 (21,700 cu ft) |
| Regime | Cislunar space |
| Dimensions | |
| Height | ~52.3 m (172 ft) |
| Diameter | 9 m (30 ft) |
| Capacity | |
| Payload to lunar surface | |
| Mass | 100,000 kg (220,000 lb) |
| Production | |
| Status | In development |
| Maiden launch | 2027 (planned) |
| Related spacecraft | |
| Derived from | SpaceX Starship (spacecraft) |
| Flown with | SpaceX Super Heavy |
| Starship HLS | |
| Powered by |
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| Propellant | CH4 / LOX |
 | |
Starship HLS (Human Landing System) is a lunar lander variant of the Starship spacecraft that is slated to transfer astronauts from a lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon and back. It is being designed and built by SpaceX under the Human Landing System contract to NASA as a critical element of NASA's Artemis program to land a crew of astronauts on the Moon.
The mission plan calls for a Super Heavy booster to launch a Starship HLS into Earth orbit, where it will be refueled by multiple Starship tanker spacecraft before boosting itself into a lunar near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO). There, it will rendezvous with a crewed Orion spacecraft that will be launched from Earth by a NASA Space Launch System (SLS) launcher. A crew of two (or more) astronauts will transfer from Orion to HLS, which will then descend to the lunar surface for a stay of approximately seven days, including at least five EVAs. It will then return the crew to Orion in NRHO.
In the third phase of its HLS procurement process, NASA awarded SpaceX a contract in April 2021 to develop, produce, and demonstrate Starship HLS. An uncrewed test flight planned for 2025 to demonstrate a successful landing on the Moon has since been delayed. Following that test, a crewed lunar landing with either Starship HLS or Blue Moon is expected as part of the Artemis IV mission, now scheduled for early 2028.
Starship itself has been in privately funded development by SpaceX since the mid-2010s, but development of the HLS variant is being funded under NASA's Human Landing System contracts.