Cape Canaveral, Fla. – NASA has chosen SpaceX to deliver the first two segments of the lunar-rotation gateway space station for its upcoming Artemis program, which aims to send astronauts back to the moon. Elements will launch over the Falcon Heavy Rocket sometime in 2024.
The flight, the second to be delivered to SpaceX this week (the first was a 98.8 million contract to launch NASA’s SPARX astrophysics mission) will take over the gateway’s power and habitation modules. Launching the Pad 39 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the mission will cost NASA 33 1,331.8 million and is expected to explode before May 2024.
Once the moon is in orbit, the gateway will serve as an outpost for astronauts and equipment heading to the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program. At one-sixth the size of the International Space Station, the Gateway will support research investigations, crews and missions to the lunar surface.
Related: Check out the stunning photos of the first night launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy
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The outpost will serve as a docking station to visit spacecraft, such as NASA’s Orion spacecraft, and orbit the moon thousands of miles away. It will be a pit stop on the way to the surface of the moon. NASA recently halted its search for a human landing system, which would take astronauts from the gateway to the lunar surface. The agency is expected to begin reviewing those bids soon.
A pair of SpaceX modules will ferry into space, the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and the Habitat and Logistics Outpost (HALO), built by Maxer Technologies and Northrop Grumman Space Systems, respectively.
PPE will power the gateway, enable communications, as well as help move the station into various lunar orbits, while HALO will give astronauts a place to go to the moon. Astronauts traveling to the moon will travel on crew-toting capsules like Orion and AHALO will provide docking support for those vehicles.
Related: The White House says the U.S. Artemis astronauts are still committed to landing on the moon
The European Space Agency will provide a service module for the gateway, which includes consumers such as oxygen and water, as well as key life support elements including electricity and temperature control. The hardware is set to launch on NASA’s second planned flight of its new Megarocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). Named Artemis 2, that mission will be the first crew mission of the Artemis program. It is to unveil four astronauts on a loop around the moon in 2023 in preparation for the 2024 lunar landing with the Artemis 3 mission. The first S.L.S. The flight, scheduled to begin in late 2021, will be a test flight around the moon.
ESA officials said the life support systems at the gateway could host visiting astronauts for up to 90 days at a time. NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas will manage the gateway program, while the agency’s launch service program (LSP) at the Kennedy Space Center will manage the launch.
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