Updated 11:15 a.m. Eastern to revise list of NLS II vehicles.
WASHINGTON — NASA has added SpaceX’s Starship to a contract used for launching agency missions, but the vehicle still has significant work ahead before it can start launching major missions.
NASA announced March 28 that it had added Starship to its NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract. The NLS II contract is used by the agency for acquiring launch services for many science and exploration missions.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets are already on NLS II and have been used frequently in recently years, such as the March 11 launch of the agency’s SPHEREx astrophysics spacecraft and PUNCH space science mission, which shared the same Falcon 9. Other vehicles on NLS II include Blue Origin’s New Glenn, Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 and Vulcan Centaur.
Adding a vehicle like Starship, which has yet to attempt to place a payload into orbit, does not make it immediately eligible to compete for all NASA missions. NASA places vehicles under NLS II into one of three categories defined by level of risk, which is in turn based on the vehicle’s flight history and level of analysis and oversight.
The lowest level, Category 1, is for “high risk” vehicles that can include those yet to make their first flight. Its use is limited to NASA missions designated as Class D, typically low-cost missions with a higher tolerance for risk.
Category 2 is for “medium risk” vehicles with between one and six consecutive successful launches, depending on the level of NASA analysis, and is for primarily Class C missions with moderate risk tolerance and Class D missions. Category 3 is for “low risk” vehicles that have demonstrated between 3 and 14 successful launches. It can be used for all classes of missions, including Class A missions like Europa Clipper and the Roman Space Telescope that have the lowest tolerances for risk.
Blue Origin announced Feb. 17, a month after the first launch of its New Glenn rocket, that it had achieved Category 1 certification under the contract for that vehicle.
Despite being added to the NLS II contract, Starship’s primary near-term use for NASA will be for the Human Landing System (HLS) program, as SpaceX develops a lunar lander version of the vehicle that will be used for the Artemis 3 and 4 crewed landings later this decade.
As part of that effort, SpaceX filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission seeking authorization for communications with Starship. That application was formally accepted for filing by the FCC March 27.
“SpaceX is honored that NASA has entrusted the Starship launch vehicle and variants of the Starship upper stage including a tanker, a depot, and the Starship Human Landing System, to support NASA’s Artemis campaign,” the company said in its application, submitted in December. “SpaceX requests spectrum resources that will support this major national priority, facilitate the launch of next-generation satellites and inhabited spacecraft, and maintain American leadership in space over the long term.”
That application, while focused on the frequencies SpaceX plans to use for Starship communications in orbit and at the moon, does include some other details. Operations in low Earth orbit, including for satellite launches and for missions to transfer propellant to a depot for missions beyond LEO, will operate at altitudes of 181 to 381 kilometers between zero and 90 degrees inclination.
There will also be what SpaceX calls a “Final Tanking Orbit” for what the company calls “secondary propellant transfer” for crewed missions to the moon. That will be in an orbit of 281 by 34,534 kilometers, with a variation of plus or minus 100 kilometers for the perigee. The apogee, by contrast, could be as low as 10,534 kilometers and as high as 150,534 kilometers. The inclination will be between 28 and 33 degrees.
The application also preserves the option for operating Starship in a low lunar orbit, defined as a circular orbit 120 kilometers above the moon, as well as in near rectilinear halo orbit, between 3,000 and 70,000 kilometers. NASA has planned to use the near rectilinear halo orbit for Artemis missions, including for the lunar Gateway.