When it comes to moonshots, even the best-laid plans seem to orbit chaos. NASA’s ambitious Artemis III mission, aiming for America’s first crewed lunar landing in over half a century, depends on a massive, intricate SpaceX Starship. But with delays piling up, NASA declared an all-out push to win the modern space race — with or without Elon Musk.

• Starship faced three explosions this year — its gargantuan size, excessive complexity, and unproven in-orbit refueling now lead to worries that the moon landing may slip from 2027 to 2032.
• With China aiming for a moon landing by 2030, NASA chief Sean Duffy announced, “We’re not going to wait for one company” — aiming to “win the second space race against the Chinese.”

Afterburners: While NASA’s Plan B specifically named Lockheed MartinLMT

and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin as contenders, shares in Rocket LabRKLB

, Intuitive MachinesLUNR

, and KarmanKRMN

rose on the news. On X, Musk declared his team “is moving like lightning,” while jabbing Blue Origin for never sending a payload to orbit. Still, experts warn a switch could cost billions and disrupt timetables — but if nothing else, liftoff just got a whole lot more interesting.