Jim Bridenstine used to run NASA.
He remembers the good old days. Or at least, he remembers a time when the machinery was simpler. Now he is CEO of Quantum Space.
He sat down for the This Week in Space podcast recently and let a little bird fly out of his cage.
He is worried about the Artemis moon landers.
Actually, he thinks the whole architectural approach might be a trap.
” That is going to come back and bite us,” he said.
And he might be right.
The Apollo Illusion of Simplicity
Think about Apollo.
John F. Kennedy said it. Eight years later, humans stood on the moon.
Why?
The engineering was brutal, yes. But it was simple in design. One big Saturn V rocket. The command module. The lander underneath it all.
They didn’t try to be fancy.
Bridenstine contrasts that with Artemis.
This time it is complicated. Extraordinarily so.
Orion sits atop the SLS rocket. The lander?
The lander comes later.
On a different rocket. From a different company.
The Starship Shuffle
NASA signed two deals.
SpaceX is bringing Starship. Blue Origin is bringing Blue Moon.
Both are supposed to ferry astronauts from orbit down to the dusty surface.
The problem?
Neither has made it to orbit. Not even close.
NASA wants to land humans in 2028 on Artemis 4.
That sounds aggressive. It probably is.
The architecture is extraordinarily complicated.
Bridenstine pointed out a harsh truth.
The Space Launch System rocket was delayed. Years of delays. But when it finally fired up, it worked perfectly right out of the box. It was rated for crew.
The landers haven’t even finished their qualification tests. No uncrewed landings. No certification. Just promises and timelines shifting in the sand.
The Refueling Nightmare
It is not just about getting the vehicles up.
It is about getting them ready.
Starship and Blue Moon need refueling. In orbit.
You launch the tanker. You dock. You pump propellant. Then you hope the valves work.
A recent Inspector General report estimated Starship needs at least 15 additional launches just to refill its tanks for one mission.
Fifteen.
Just for fuel.
Apollo launched once.
Artemis launches multiple times, hopes the hardware survives the vacuum, and hopes the computers talk to each other.
A Test in Space
Artemis 3 happens in 2027.
No humans yet. Just a practice run.
Orion will dock with Blue Moon and Starship in low Earth orbit.
Two weeks of fumbling with connectors in zero G.
But here is the kicker: Blue Moon will have a cabin. Astronauts could sit inside.
Starship? No cabin.
Just a docking adapter. A stub where people would sit if they had seats.
That is a quiet signal.
It tells you where SpaceX stands right now.
NASA knows it.
Sean Duffy, the former acting administrator, was blunt. They are behind schedule. He talked about racing China.
Bridenstine echoes the sentiment but without the politics.
“Whatever it takes to build a landers soonest is what we ought be doing.”
So which lander gets picked?
It depends on who builds a working machine first.
If Starship stays broken, NASA might scrap the contract. Or they might wait. Or they might both fail.
We will see what happens when the rockets leave the ground.
Or don’t.
What is the cost of waiting for perfect engineering?
Maybe nothing.
Or maybe the window closes.
The moon does not care about our plans.
