March 23, 2022; NASA makes strides to return humans to the lunar surface under Artemis, Today, the agency announced plans to create additional opportunities for commercial companies to develop an astronaut Moon lander. Under Artemis, NASA will carry out a series of groundbreaking missions on and around the Moon to prepare for the next giant leap for humanity: a crewed mission to Mars,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Competition is critical to our success on the lunar surface and beyond, ensuring we have the capability to carry out a cadence of missions over the next decade."
Lunar Starship for Artemis Missions
The agency's head Bill Nelson says "SpaceX will carry next 2 NASA astronauts to Moon and the company is making good progress. Then 1 human lunar landing/year over a decade leading to human missions to Mars in late 2030s or early 2040s.
"We are still planning Artemis III in 2025. Want a second company for sustained ops as well as offering SpaceX opportunity to conduct similar work in a parallel procurement". - says Jim Free
He further added; in 2025-2027 timeframe, SpaceX will have uncrewed flight for first HLS mission as demonstration, and 2. crewed mission for Artemis III for 1st lander, and then 3. a second uncrewed demo and 4. crewed lander thereafter the sustained lunar HLS contract will be given to another company to do it or SpaceX can bid further for crewed Missions