Space: Elon Musk envisions SpaceX Starship's lunar landing by 2021

Uncrewed SpaceX Starship could land on the moon by 2021, following which, a manned moon mission could be a quick possibility, SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said.

Musk`s conservative estimate for sending people back to the moon aboard a SpaceX vehicle is 2023, a year before NASA hopes to send a crew to visit the moon as part of its Artemis programme, that would also include a female astronaut, CNET reported on Thursday. 

Earlier this year, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said that the space agency could consider using a third-party rocket like the SpaceX Falcon Heavy for returning to the lunar surface but later clarified that Artemis programme would use NASA`s new Space Launch System.

Taking cues from NASA`s plans, the multi-billionaire space enthusiast believes that the quickest way back to the moon may be to "go for it, alone" because he knows that the process of qualifying a new spacecraft to fly NASA missions, especially involving crew, could take many months or even years.

While a few key SpaceX projects are working through minor setbacks, on Tuesday a hold-down test firing of a single-engine SpaceX Starship prototype ended with an unexpected fireball. 

Even though the prototype did not appear to be seriously damaged, this week`s plans for the so-called `Starhopper` to lift off the ground for the first time and hover before landing were subsequently delayed, the report said. 

Earlier this week, Musk`s SpaceX and NASA announced that the Dragon explosion was traced back to a leak in the craft`s pressurisation system. 

While Crew Dragon was initially set to carry its first crew this month, Musk now says that mission looks to be about six months away.

Earlier this year, a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft was destroyed during a test firing. 

Though NASA has already tapped Crew Dragon and Boeing`s Starliner craft to begin shuttling US astronauts to the International Space Station, Bridenstine told a Senate committee on Wednesday that NASA would not even have an estimate of the cost for its 2024 Artemis mission-ready until 2020.