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SpaceX competitor Blue Origin targets first Moon landing for 2023
Prospective SpaceX competitor and reusable rocket developer Blue Origin detailed its plans earlier this month to enable significant human presence on the Moon and announced a tentative schedule that could see the company begin experimental lunar landing tests of a multi-ton spacecraft just a few years from today – NET 2023.
Funded entirely with stock sales courtesy of founder Jeff Bezos’ lucrative position at the helm of Amazon (not to mention his status as the wealthiest human alive), Blue Origin receives roughly $1 billion annually to develop its space tourism-oriented New Shepard rocket and capsule (suborbital), the magnitudes-larger orbital New Glenn launch vehicle, and a number of other longer-term projects like human colonies in Earth orbit (including the Moon).
In answer to my question, @ac_charania said would evolve to reusable Blue Moon lander. Also under consideration is reusable New Glenn upper stage & faring. https://t.co/Dg3UTN9HU5
— Charles A. Lurio (@TheLurioReport) July 4, 2018
Think SpaceX in terms of ambition (and, perhaps, quality of workforce) but with essentially no existential motivation to field products quickly – framed a bit less flatteringly, Blue Origin moves very slowly when compared with SpaceX. The company was born a full two years before SpaceX and has been working on reusable rockets for at least as long, yet has less than ten launches of a genuinely reusable rocket to claim its own. That rocket, New Shepard, is a purely suborbital, single-stage vehicle intended to enable zero-gee tourism, and is downright minuscule when examined alongside Falcon 9 and Heavy.
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- Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine, the propulsion for New Glenn, seen conducting hot-fire tests in Texas. The engine’s nozzles is a full 6 feet (~1.8m) in diameter. (Blue Origin)
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- New Shepard ahead of Blue Origin’s most recent suborbital launch, the eighth completed so far. April 2018. (Blue Origin)
New Glenn, however, would truly catapult Blue Origin into a competitive position in the orbital launch business, placing them alongside companies like SpaceX, ULA, and Arianespace. Further, Blue appears to believe that it can design and produce New Glenn boosters capable of as many as 25 flights from the get-go, versus the three years SpaceX spent iteratively design and upgrading its Falcon 9 before arriving at a booster potentially capable of 10-100 reuses. New Glenn’s inaugural launch is currently scheduled for late 2020, and the impressive BE-4 methalox rocket engine powering its first stage is well into serious hot-fire testing, while the engine that will power New Glenn’s upper stage is already successfully flying (albeit as a sea-level variant) on New Shepard.
In a glance, Blue Origin undoubtedly has a lot going for it, although its confidence quite plainly outstrips its the achievements it can actually lay claim to at present. Nevertheless, the company’s Blue Moon project is clearly serious and will build heavily on the (hoped for) successes of New Shepard and New Glenn, integrating the hands-on experience and technologies developed over the course of building and launching both rockets. Presumably depending on New Glenn as the launch vehicle, Blue Origin stated on July 3 that its lunar lander – designed to deliver multiple tons of cargo to the Moon’s surface – could begin experimental Moon missions by 2023 and potentially even sooner if work proceeds exceptionally smoothly.
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- Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. (Blue Origin)
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- SpaceX’s BFR. (Gravitation Innovation/David Romax)
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- Credit: NASA-MSFC
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- Arianespace’s next-generation Ariane 6. (Arianespace)
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- ULA’s upcoming Vulcan rocket. (ULA)
Whether or not Blue Origin manages to make that extraordinarily aggressive scheduled and jumps from suborbital missions to giant orbital reusable rocket launches to multi-ton Moon landings in barely five years, the 2020s are lining up to be an extraordinarily exciting time for spaceflight. With any luck, a veritable fleet of next-generation rockets from Blue Origin, SpaceX, Arianespace, ULA, NASA, Japan, and five or more smaller commercial companies will complete their first launches over the next three years.
Meanwhile, heavyweights SpaceX and Blue Origin may find themselves in a whole different arena, racing to land payloads on the Moon (or perhaps on the Moon and Mars).
SpaceX has revealed the date for the maiden voyage of Starship v3, its newest and most advanced version of the rocket yet.
Starship v3 represents a significant leap forward. At 124 meters tall when fully stacked, it stands taller than previous versions and boasts substantial upgrades.
The vehicle incorporates next-generation Raptor 3 engines, which deliver higher thrust, improved reliability, and simplified designs with fewer parts. Both the Super Heavy booster (Booster 19) and the Starship upper stage (Ship 39) feature these enhancements, along with structural improvements for greater payload capacity—exceeding 100 metric tons to low Earth orbit in reusable configuration.
SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk have announced that the company aims to push the first launch of Starship v3 this Thursday. Musk included some clips of past Starship launches with the announcement.
Now targeting launch as early as Thursday, May 21 → https://t.co/2gZQUxS6mm
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 19, 2026
First Starship V3 launch later this week! pic.twitter.com/JFX4CrSfnY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 19, 2026
There are a lot of improvements to Starship v3 from past builds. Key hardware changes include a more robust heat shield, upgraded avionics, and modifications optimized for orbital refueling, a critical technology for future missions to the Moon and Mars. This flight marks the first launch from Starbase’s second orbital pad, allowing parallel operations and accelerating the cadence of tests.
This will be the 12th Starship launch for SpaceX. Flight 12 objectives include a full ascent profile, hot-staging separation, in-space engine relights, and reentry testing. The booster is expected to perform a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, while the ship will deploy 20 Starlink simulator satellites and a pair of modified Starlink V3 units before attempting reentry.
Success would validate V3’s design for operational use, paving the way for rapid reusability and higher flight rates.
The rapid evolution from V2 to V3 underscores SpaceX’s iterative approach. Previous flights demonstrated booster catches, ship landings, and heat shield advancements. V3 builds on these with nearly every component refined, supported by an expanding production line at Starbase that churns out vehicles at an unprecedented pace.
Starship V3 is here putting SpaceX closer to Mars than it has ever been
This launch comes amid growing momentum for SpaceX’s ambitious goals. Starship is central to NASA’s Artemis program for lunar landings and Elon Musk’s vision of making humanity multiplanetary. A successful V3 debut would boost confidence in achieving orbital refueling and crewed missions in the coming years.
As excitement builds, enthusiasts and engineers alike await liftoff. Weather and technical readiness will determine the exact timing, but the community is optimistic. Starship V3 is poised to push the boundaries of spaceflight once again, bringing reusable interplanetary transport closer to reality.
Elon Musk broke his silence regarding the jury decision to throw out the case against OpenAI and Sam Altman. The Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI frontman has already indicated that an appeal will be filed regarding the decision, which went against him yesterday.
A Federal jury dismissed this high-profile lawsuit after less than two hours of deliberation due to a statute-of-limitations issue.
In a strongly worded post on X on May 18, Musk addressed the federal jury’s dismissal of his high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI, vowing to appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The decision, according to Musk, was centered not on the substantive claims but on a statute-of-limitations technicality.
Musk’s lawsuit, filed in 2024, accused OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of breaching the organization’s original nonprofit mission. OpenAI was established in 2015 as a non-profit dedicated to developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of all humanity, with Musk as a key early donor and co-founder before departing in 2018.
Musk alleged that Altman and Brockman improperly shifted the company toward a for-profit model, enriched themselves through massive valuations and partnerships (including with Microsoft), and betrayed founding agreements.
In his post, Musk emphasized that the judge and jury “never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a calendar technicality.” He stated unequivocally: “There is no question to anyone following the case in detail that Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity. The only question is WHEN they did it!”
Regarding the OpenAI case, the judge & jury never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a calendar technicality.
There is no question to anyone following the case in detail that Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity. The only question…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 18, 2026
Musk argued that allowing such actions to stand without review sets a dangerous precedent. “I will be filing an appeal with the Ninth Circuit, because creating a precedent to loot charities is incredibly destructive to charitable giving in America,” he wrote. He reiterated OpenAI’s founding purpose: “OpenAI was founded to benefit all of humanity.”
The jury’s unanimous advisory verdict found that Musk’s claims of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment were filed outside California’s three-year statute of limitations. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers adopted the finding and dismissed the case. OpenAI hailed the outcome as vindication, while Musk’s legal team immediately signaled plans to appeal.
The trial, which featured testimony from Musk, Altman, Brockman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and others, exposed deep rifts in Silicon Valley over AI’s direction.
Musk has long warned that profit-driven AI development, especially with closed models and powerful corporate ties, risks endangering humanity—contrasting it with OpenAI’s original open, safety-focused charter. OpenAI countered that the suit stemmed from business rivalry and that Musk himself had explored for-profit paths earlier.
Musk’s appeal could prolong the saga, potentially affecting OpenAI’s valuation (reportedly over $800 billion) and IPO ambitions. Supporters view his stance as defending nonprofit integrity, while critics see it as sour grapes from a competitor whose own xAI is racing in the AI arena.
Regardless of the legal outcome, the case has spotlighted critical questions about trust, governance, and mission drift in the rapidly evolving AI industry. Musk’s willingness to fight on suggests this chapter is far from closed, with broader implications for how charitable organizations—and the tech giants born from them—operate in the future.
Elon Musk
NASA updated Artemis III and SpaceX’s role just got more complicated
SpaceX’s Starship is the key to NASA’s Moon plan and the timeline is already slipping.
SpaceX has been at the center of NASA’s Moon ambitions for five years, and the updated Artemis III plan recently released by NASA makes that relationship more visible than ever. In April 2021, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.89 billion contract to develop the Starship Human Landing System, selecting it as the sole provider to land astronauts on the Moon under Artemis III. Blue Origin filed legal protests, lost, and eventually received its own contract, but SpaceX was always the program’s primary lander contractor.
The original plan called for Starship to land two astronauts on the lunar south pole. That mission slipped as Starship development ran behind schedule, and in February 2026, NASA officially revised the Artemis III architecture entirely. The mission will now remain in low Earth orbit and serve as a crewed rendezvous and docking test between the Orion spacecraft and both the SpaceX Starship HLS pathfinder and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 2 pathfinder, with the actual Moon landing pushed to Artemis IV in 2028.
What makes SpaceX’s position particularly significant is the direct line between this week’s Starship V3 launch and the Artemis timeline. The Starship HLS is essentially a modified version of the V3 upper stage, meaning SpaceX cannot realistically prepare a lander for a 2027 docking test until it has demonstrated that the base vehicle flies reliably at scale. Flight 12, targeting this week, is the first data point in that sequence.
NASA has spent nearly $7 billion on Human Landing System development since awarding contracts to SpaceX and Blue Origin in 2021 and 2023, and NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has indicated a desire to drive down costs going forward. As Teslarati reported, before Starship HLS can put anyone on the Moon it has to solve a problem no rocket has demonstrated at scale, which is refueling in orbit, requiring approximately ten tanker launches worth of propellant loaded into a depot before the lander has enough fuel to reach the lunar surface.
The Artemis III mission described by NASA is essentially a stress test for every system that needs to work before any of that happens.
SpaceX has gone from a launch contractor to the single most critical hardware provider in America’s return-to-the-Moon program. With an IPO targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation and Elon Musk’s compensation tied directly to Mars colonization, the pressure on every Starship milestone between now and 2028 has never been higher.
SpaceX reveals date for maiden Starship v3 launch
Elon Musk breaks silence on OpenAI trial decision
