Why it's taken so long for NASA to go back to the moon. Here's how it happens

The SpaceX Starship will return NASA astronauts to the moon in this decade .

Elon Musk and his crew at Star Base are working at ludicrous speed to develop the largest, most powerful, and most capable vehicle that has ever been launched into space.

Meanwhile, NASA is preparing a road map to achieve the first permanent outpost on the lunar surface.

A fully fueled Starship upper stage can hold 1500 tons of propellant, and each ship has the ability to carry something like 150 tons of excess mass into orbit at most.

This figure was confirmed by SpaceX Vice president of Customer Operations and Integration Jessica Jansen as recently as January 2024 on a NASA Artemis update conference call.

It will take roughly 10:00-ish Starship launches for a single mission to the moon.

Artemis will be the first fully automated human landing on the Moon.

The landing thrusters will bring the ship in for a slow and gentle touchdown, just like a helicopter.

Just like a Crew Dragon vehicle, Starship won't have manual controls, only big touch screens to monitor the ship's flight status.