The Lunar Starship is pretty weird. If Orion is late, yes it can probably land people on the moon from the Earth's surface. But it can't come back without its h

The Lunar Starship is pretty weird. If Orion is late, yes it can probably land people on the moon from the Earth's surface. But it can't come back without its heatshield. If you need it to come back with people as well, then it's no longer the Lunar Starship, but just regular Starship. Even if SLS slips, that's still probably quite a shift for all involved, unless SpaceX is already doing Apollo 8 style missions in 2 years. The answer might actually be "Delta Heavy". Orion can launch on Delta Heavy, so if Lunar Starship can get people back to LEO, they can land using Orion. But then, why not just use Starliner or Crew Dragon to get people to/from LEO, then use Lunar Starhip LEO-Moon-LEO?