NASA Artemis IV Plan Pairs Orion Crew With Starship Lunar Lander

NASA’s Artemis IV mission outline describes astronauts launching aboard Orion, meeting a Starship lunar lander, and transferring to Starship for the descent to the lunar surface. The plan assigns two crew members to each spacecraft for the surface mission.

Key details

• The concept includes a propellant depot in low Earth orbit, followed by docking between the depot and Starship in a designated final tanking orbit.
• NASA’s graphic depicts multiple tanker flights to refuel the depot, without specifying a total.
• The outline describes an approach intended to allow flexibility in SLS launch timing and reduce propellant needs, partly by sending Orion directly to low lunar orbit.

NASA’s Artemis IV outline assigns two astronauts to Orion and two to the Starship lander for the surface mission.

Why it matters

The plan puts Orion, NASA’s SLS rocket and SpaceX’s Starship in distinct roles for the crewed lunar mission. Depot refueling would require Starship to receive propellant in orbit before heading to the Moon, making tanker operations part of the mission architecture.