SpaceX’s Starship Triumph Sparks Moon Race 2.0 with China – Stocks Take Off
NASA’s Artemis program is revving back up. After Artemis II slips into 2026, the big prize is Artemis III – the first American moon landing since Apollo. Under the current plan, NASA will launch Orion atop an SLS rocket and then rendezvous with SpaceX’s Starship, which must carry astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface. SpaceX’s recent Flight 11 achieved most of its objectives: the Starship upper stage reached space and deployed payloads, while the Super-Heavy booster performed a soft water landingreuters.com. NASA’s acting chief Sean Duffy praised the mission as “another major step toward landing Americans on the Moon’s south pole”reuters.com. SpaceX says it will now fly an upgraded Starship prototype with key features for deep space – including orbital refueling hardware – likely by year’s endreuters.com. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told reporters this new version “is really the vehicle that could take humans to the Moon and Mars”reuters.com. Elon Musk himself is pushing for starship refueling tests soonreuters.com. These technologies are vital: dozens of tanker Starship flights will be needed to fuel a Moon-bound lander in orbit. NASA paid SpaceX over $3 billion in 2021 for Starship as the human lunar lander under Artemis, so delays are politically
