Jim Bridenstine, who led NASA from 2018 to 2021, has raised serious concerns about the agency's Artemis moon landing plans, calling the current architecture overly complicated and risky.
During an appearance on the This Week in Space podcast on June 12, Bridenstine questioned the lack of a functional crewed lunar lander and the program's reliance on multiple launches and orbital refueling.
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Apollo's Simplicity vs. Artemis Complexity
Bridenstine contrasted the Artemis program's multi-launch strategy with the single-launch approach used during the Apollo era, which landed astronauts on the moon in 1969.
"The genius of Apollo was its simplicity," he said, noting that the Saturn V rocket launched both the crew capsule and the lunar lander together.
In contrast, the current Artemis design requires separate launches for the Orion spacecraft and its landers, along with numerous orbital refueling flights.
A NASA Inspector General report estimated that SpaceX's Starship alone would need at least 15 additional tanker flights to fuel a single lunar mission.
"The architecture is extraordinarily complicated," Bridenstine said.
No Working Lander Yet
NASA has contracted SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's Blue Moon to develop landers for a planned 2028 landing.
However, neither spacecraft has reached orbit.
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"We still don't have a lander, and without a lander, you can't land on the moon.
It's really that simple, and I worry that over time that's going to come back and bite us," Bridenstine warned.
The Artemis 3 practice mission, scheduled for mid-to-late 2027, will see astronauts dock with both landers in low Earth orbit.
During this test, Starship will carry only a docking adapter, not a functional crew cabin, highlighting current development limitations.
Bridenstine, now CEO of Quantum Space, urged the agency to prioritize building a lander quickly.
"Whatever it takes to build a lander soonest is what we ought to be doing as a country," he said.
Delays have already prompted NASA to acknowledge schedule risks.
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Last year, then-acting administrator Sean Duffy noted the agency was in a race against China and cited potential contract reopenings due to SpaceX delays.
