SpaceX, billionaire Elon Musk's commercial rocket company, says it's working on a "simplified" plan for its Starship to land astronauts on the moon.

After acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy this month called out SpaceX for Starship delays, Elon Musk's company has come back with an update defending its progress and offering a speedier plan to get astronauts back on the moon as part of the Artemis program.

Elon Musk's SpaceX on Thursday said it proposed to NASA a simplified plan to send humans to the moon using its Starship rocket, as the agency presses its contractors to move more quickly toward beating China to the lunar surface this decade.

SpaceX, which continues with plans to expand Starship operations to Florida, has proposed a new plan to NASA for an Artemis 3 moon lander.

In April 2021, NASA awarded Elon Musk's company a $2.9 billion contract to provide the first crewed lunar lander for the agency's Artemis program. That vehicle, a modified upper stage of SpaceX's Starship megarocket, is supposed to land astronauts on the moon for the first time on the upcoming Artemis 3 mission.

SpaceX Sunday said it is stepping up its efforts to develop a simplified Human Landing System for NASA as it pursues a plan to return to the moon.