NASA is changing how astronauts will get to the lunar surface, and it’s finally fixing a weakness that has dogged the Orion spacecraft for years. According to Ars Technica, the agency announced Friday that it’s working with United Launch Alliance (ULA) on an “extended” version of the Centaur V upper stage. Paired with the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage, it would let Orion reach low lunar orbit for the first time.
This matters because it shifts work off the companies building the landers, starting with Blue Origin.
The Short Version
- What: NASA and ULA are developing an extended Centaur V upper stage for SLS.
- Why: Orion’s Service Module can’t do the full trip on its own: launch from Earth, reach low lunar orbit, then come home for a Pacific splashdown.
- Who benefits: Lunar lander makers, especially Blue Origin and its Blue Moon lander.
- What changes: Orion could meet its lander a few hundred km above the Moon instead of about 8,500 km out.
From 8,500 km to a Few Hundred
NASA’s current plan for Blue Moon has Orion docking with the lander in an elliptical lunar orbit about 8,500 km above the surface. That’s a long way to haul a crew down and back up again.
Jeremy Parsons, who manages NASA’s Artemis Program, explained what a lower orbit gets you. Docking a few hundred km above the Moon would “significantly reduce” the propellant Blue Moon needs to bring astronauts down and back. Here’s what that unlocks:
- Less fuel for the lander. Lighter propellant loads free up mass that can go elsewhere on the vehicle.
- Better escape options. A low orbit gives astronauts more chances, and quicker ones, to leave the surface if something goes wrong.
- Easier engineering for Blue Origin. Several hard parts of the landing get much easier.
Fixing an Old Embarrassment
The bigger story is Orion. Ars Technica calls its underpowered Service Module a long-running “point of embarrassment” for NASA. The spacecraft doesn’t have the delta-V to reach low lunar orbit and get back to Earth. Delta-V is basically a spacecraft’s propulsion budget: how much it can change its speed over a mission.
For years nobody seemed willing to fix it. NASA worked around the problem instead. The clearest example is the Lunar Gateway, which sits in a near-rectilinear halo orbit, a looping path Orion can safely reach. That choice pushed the hard part of getting to the surface onto the landers and the companies building them.
“Getting Orion to low-Lunar orbit means solving propulsion and spacecraft integration problems that were left unaddressed for far too long,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Friday.
What stands out is the candor. A NASA chief rarely says out loud that the agency let a core design problem slide for years.
Why NASA Is Moving Now
Isaacman framed the change as a practical response to lander schedules. NASA is watching how its landing partners are doing and stepping in where they’re struggling.
“Their lives get easier if we can get Orion closer to the Moon, substantially,” he said. “We could choose to continue on our track and say, maybe they’ll show up and meet our timelines. Or we can say well let’s start turning those knobs to help.”
That’s a real change in thinking. For most of Artemis, NASA set the architecture and expected contractors to fit inside it. Now the agency is willing to change its own hardware to take pressure off its partners.
What to Watch Next
NASA describes low lunar orbit as an option it’s working toward, not a done deal. A few open questions:
- Timeline: When will an extended Centaur V be ready to fly, and which Artemis mission gets it first?
- Gateway’s role: If Orion can reach low lunar orbit directly, the case for the Gateway’s halo orbit gets weaker.
- Lander redesigns: Blue Origin may rework Blue Moon’s propellant and mass budgets around a lower meeting point.
- SLS upgrades: Adding a new upper stage means more integration work on a rocket that already has a long history of delays.
For now, NASA has stopped asking lander makers to cover for Orion’s weak spot. If the extended Centaur V shows up on time, the path back to the Moon gets a lot shorter. Ars Technica has the full details on the updated plan.