NASA has provided a latest estimate that 22 launches of SpaceX's Starship are required to support the Artemis Program's goal of landing people on the Moon. This figure addresses the specific operational requirement of fueling a Starship-based lunar lander in low-Earth orbit, enabling it to travel to the lunar surface, land, and return to lunar orbit. The agency has historically guarded this metric closely, a stance compared in reporting to the secrecy surrounding nuclear codes, because the number represents a critical variable in the mission's architecture. Over recent years, the estimate has shifted, and NASA officials have frequently declined to provide precise figures, citing uncertainty. In 2023, Lisa Watson-Morgan, then director of NASA's Human Landing System, told Ars Technica that while the agency had a general idea of the requirement, she was reluctant to state the exact number. The release of this specific count of 22 marks a departure from that previous reluctance to disclose the logistical threshold for the lunar lander's refueling operations.