BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – As NASA pushes forward with its Artemis program, questions continue to surface about the cost and necessity of returning humans to the moon more than 50 years after the Apollo era.
The program is already facing significant headwinds. Artemis is now years behind schedule and tens of billions of dollars over budget, with total spending estimated at $93 billion from 2012 through 2025, according to NASA’s Office of Inspector General.
Some experts argue the effort is about more than exploration. They say the United States risks falling behind in a rapidly evolving space race with global economic and geopolitical stakes.
The transition from Artemis II to landing on the moon represents a significant technological leap.
Artemis II aims to send astronauts on a crewed loop around the moon. Later missions, however, are planning to land humans on the lunar surface in 2028, a far more complex undertaking that scientists are still working to fully develop.
Eric Berger, senior space editor for Ars Technica, told News 6 that expectations for the timeline may be overly optimistic.
“It would take a lot of miracles for a landing in 2028 to happen, which seems unlikely.”
Berger noted that while the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 70s succeeded with relatively simple systems, modern ambitions require far more advanced and capable technology.
The Apollo lunar module, though effective, had limitations. Its walls were extremely thin, it could carry only two astronauts, and it transported minimal equipment.
Today’s landers, being developed by companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, are designed to have significantly larger payloads.
“With SpaceX and Blue Origin, NASA’s going with much more robust landers that can take many, many tons of material down the surface. So, if you want to eventually build habitats or bring stuff back from the moon, you have that capability. The problem is those systems are more complex to develop.”
That added complexity extends beyond the landers themselves.
SpaceX’s Starship, a critical component of NASA’s Artemis plans, requires 15-20 launches to fuel a single Artemis lunar mission because of the immense mass of the landing system. The Starship Human Landing System (HLS) is designed to be a fully reusable, massive spacecraft (carrying over 100 tons of cargo/fuel) rather than a small, expendable, single-use module like the Apollo Lunar Module.
So far, Starship testing has included multiple high-profile explosions and setbacks, raising questions about readiness.
Still, NASA officials remain confident in the companies involved.
“They told me they’re going to be on time and ready to go, and I’ll take them at their word,” said Sean Duffy, former acting NASA administrator, in August 2025.
Beyond the engineering challenges, the broader rationale for returning to the moon centers on long-term global positioning.
Berger said space is becoming increasingly important to national interests.
“The future of this country and other countries around the world is actually tied up in outer space, both in terms of economics as well as geopolitics. I would just ask, if in the 2030s, you see Chinese astronauts developing facilities on the surface of the moon, giving them a strategic advantage over the United States, is that something that we as a nation would be comfortable with?”
The potential economic opportunities tied to space exploration are also drawing attention.
Experts from NASA, defense research agencies, and various private sector consultancies point to lunar tourism and resource mining as critical future revenue streams. These sectors are expected to contribute to a space economy projected to reach between $1.8 trillion by 2035, up from $630 billion in 2023, according to a report by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company.
Analysts at PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) have projected that lunar surface activities (mining, tourism, and related activities) could generate cumulative revenues of $93.9 billion to $127.3 billion between 2026 and 2050.
Private companies involved in Artemis and related efforts have even broader ambitions, including establishing a sustained human presence beyond Earth.
The long-term goal, proponents say, is to enable thousands — or even millions — of people to live and work in space.