Washington, United States. NASA is cancelling plans to deploy a space station in lunar orbit and will instead use its components to construct a $20 billion base on the moon’s surface over the next seven years, NASA chief Jared Isaacman said on Tuesday.
Announcement at NASA headquarters
Isaacman, who was sworn in at the agency in December, made the announcement at the opening of a day-long event at NASA’s Washington headquarters, where he outlined changes to the agency’s flagship moon program Artemis.
“It should not really surprise anyone that we are pausing Gateway in its current form and focusing on infrastructure that supports sustained operations on the lunar surface,” Isaacman told delegates at the event.
Status of Lunar Gateway and contractors
The Lunar Gateway station, largely already built with contractors Northrop Grumman NOC.N and Vantor, formerly Maxar, was meant to be a space station parked in a lunar orbit. Repurposing the craft for a lunar surface base is not simple.
“Despite some of the very real hardware and schedule challenges, we can repurpose equipment and international partner commitments to support surface and other program objectives,” Isaacman said.
Role of Gateway in Artemis plans
Lunar Gateway was designed to serve as both a research platform and a transfer station that astronauts would use to board the moon landers before descending to the lunar surface.
Contract impacts and competition
The changes imposed by Isaacman on the U.S. moon program in recent weeks are reshaping billions of dollars worth of contracts under the Artemis effort. The shift is sending companies scrambling as China makes progress toward its own 2030 moon landing.
How do you think NASA’s decision to pause Lunar Gateway will affect the Artemis program’s timeline and partners?
