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By NASA
Gateway’s HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) in a cleanroom at Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy. After final installations are complete, it will be packaged and transported to the United States for final outfitting before being integrated with Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element and launched to lunar orbit. Thales Alenia Space Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts on missions to and around the Moon. The agency and its international partners report progress continues on Gateway, the first space station that will permanently orbit the Moon, after visiting the Thales Alenia Space facility in Turin, Italy, where initial fabrication for one of two Gateway habitation modules is nearing completion.
Leaders from NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and the Italian Space Agency, as well as industry representatives from Northrop Grumman and Thales Alenia Space, were in Turin to assess Gateway’s HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) module before its primary structure is shipped from Italy to Northrop Grumman’s Gilbert, Arizona site in March. Following final outfitting and verification testing, the module will be integrated with the Power and Propulsion Element at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“Building and testing hardware for Gateway is truly an international collaboration,” said Jon Olansen, manager, Gateway Program, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “We’re excited to celebrate this major flight hardware milestone, and this is just the beginning – there’s impressive and important progress taking shape with our partners around the globe, united by our shared desire to expand human exploration of our solar system while advancing scientific discovery.”
Gateway’s HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) in a cleanroom at Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy. After final installations are complete, it will be packaged and transported to the United States for final outfitting before being integrated with Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element and launched to lunar orbit.Thales Alenia Space To ensure all flight hardware is ready to support Artemis IV — the first crewed mission to Gateway – NASA is targeting the launch of HALO and the Power and Propulsion Element no later than December 2027. These integrated modules will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and spend about a year traveling uncrewed to lunar orbit, while providing scientific data on solar and deep space radiation during transit.
Launching atop HALO will be ESA’s Lunar Link communication system, which will provide high-speed communication between the Moon and Gateway. The system is undergoing testing at another Thales Alenia Space facility in Cannes, France.
Once in lunar orbit, Gateway will continue scientific observations while awaiting the arrival of Artemis IV astronauts aboard an Orion spacecraft which will deliver and dock Gateway’s second pressurized habitable module, the ESA-led Lunar I-Hab. Thales Alenia Space, ESA’s primary contractor for the Lunar I-Hab and Lunar View refueling module, has begun production of the Lunar I-Hab, and design of Lunar View in Turin.
Teams from NASA and ESA (European Space Agency), including NASA astronaut Stan Love (far right) and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano (far left) help conduct human factors testing inside a mockup of Gateway’s Lunar I-Hab module.Thales Alenia Space Northrop Grumman and its subcontractor, Thales Alenia Space, completed welding of HALO in 2024, and the module successfully progressed through pressure and stress tests to ensure its suitability for the harsh environment of deep space.
Maxar Space Systems is assembling the Power and Propulsion Element, which will make Gateway the most powerful solar electric propulsion spacecraft ever flown. Major progress in 2024 included installation of Xenon and chemical propulsion fuel tanks, and qualification of the largest roll-out solar arrays ever built. NASA and its partners will complete propulsion element assembly, and acceptance and verification testing of next-generation electric propulsion thrusters this year.
The main bus of Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element undergoes assembly and installations at Maxar Space Systems in Palo Alto, California.Maxar Space Systems SpaceX will provide both the Starship human landing system that will land astronauts on the lunar surface during NASA’s Artemis III mission and ferry astronauts from Gateway to the lunar South Pole region during Artemis IV, as well as provide logistics spacecraft to support crewed missions.
NASA also has selected Blue Origin to develop Blue Moon, the human landing system for Artemis V, as well as logistics spacecraft for future Artemis missions. Having two distinct lunar landing designs provides flexibility and supports a regular cadence of Moon landings in preparation for future missions to Mars.
CSA (Canadian Space Agency) is developing Canadarm3, an advanced robotics system, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) is designing and testing Lunar I-Hab’s vital life support systems, batteries, and a resupply and logistics vehicle called HTV-XG.
NASA’s newest Gateway partner, the Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) of the United Arab Emirates, kicked off early design for the Gateway Crew and Science Airlock that will be delivered on Artemis VI. The selection of Thales Alenia Space as its airlock prime contractor was announced by MBRSC on Feb. 4.
Development continues to advance on three radiation-focused initial science investigations aboard Gateway. These payloads will help scientists better understand unpredictable space weather from the Sun and galactic cosmic rays that will affect astronauts and equipment during Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.
The Gateway lunar space station is a multi-purpose platform that offers capabilities for long-term exploration in deep space in support of NASA’s Artemis campaign and Moon to Mars objectives. Gateway will feature docking ports for a variety of visiting spacecraft, as well as space for crew to live, work, and prepare for lunar surface missions. As a testbed for future journeys to Mars, continuous investigations aboard Gateway will occur with and without crew to better understand the long-term effects of deep space radiation on vehicle systems and the human body as well as test and operate next generation spacecraft systems that will be necessary to send humans to Mars.
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Last Updated Feb 21, 2025 ContactLaura RochonLocationJohnson Space Center Related Terms
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By European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) is ready to guide the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft through its closest encounter with Venus so far.
Today’s flyby will be the first to significantly ‘tilt’ the spacecraft’s orbit and allow it to see the Sun’s polar regions, which cannot be seen from Earth.
Studying the Sun’s poles will improve our understanding of solar activity, space weather, and the Sun-Earth connection.
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions 2 min read
Sols 4454-4457: Getting Ready to Fill the Long Weekend with Science
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image, which includes the pyramid-shaped rock at left in the photo, the science target dubbed “Pyramid Lake,” using its Left Navigation Camera. The rover acquired the image on sol 4452, or Martian day 4,452 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, on Feb. 13, 2025, at 14:22:06 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Friday, Feb. 14, 2025
Curiosity is continuing to make progress along the strategic route, traversing laterally across the sulfate (salt) bearing unit toward the boxwork structures. The team celebrated the completion of another successful drive when we received the downlink this morning, and then we immediately got to work thinking about what’s next. There is a holiday in the United States on Monday, so instead of the typical three-sol weekend plan, we actually planned four sols, which will set us up to return to planning next Tuesday.
The first sol of the plan focuses on remote sensing, and we’ll be taking several small Mastcam mosaics of features around the rover. One of my favorite targets the team picked is a delightfully pointy rock visible toward the left of the Navcam image shown above. The color images we’ll take with Mastcam will give us more information about the textures of this rock and potentially provide insight into the geologic forces that transformed it into this comical shape. The team chose what I think is a very appropriate name for this Martian pyramid-shaped target — “Pyramid Lake.” The terrestrial inspiration behind this name is a human-made reservoir (lake) near Los Angeles with a big (also human-made) pyramidal hill in it.
On the second sol of the plan, we’ll use the instruments on Curiosity’s arm to collect data of rock targets at our feet, including “Strawberry Peak,” a bumpy piece of bedrock, “Lake Arrowhead,” a smooth piece of bedrock, and “Skyline Trail,” a dark float rock. ChemCam will also collect chemical data of Skyline Trail, “Big Tujunga” — which is similar to Strawberry Peak — and “Momyer.” We’ll also take the first part of a 360-degree color mosaic with Mastcam!
In the third sol of the plan, we’ll complete the 360-degree mosaic and continue driving to the southwest along our strategic route. The fourth sol is pretty quiet, with some atmospheric observations and a ChemCam AEGIS. Atmospheric observations are additionally sprinkled throughout other sols of the plan. This time of year we are particularly interested in studying the clouds above Gale crater!
I’m looking forward to the nice long weekend, and returning on Tuesday morning to see everything Curiosity accomplished.
Written by Abigail Fraeman, Planetary Geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Last Updated Feb 17, 2025 Related Terms
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The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has elected three new members with NASA affiliations. Two employees and one retiree from three different NASA centers around the country were awarded the honor on Feb. 7.
Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Individuals in the newly elected class will be formally inducted during the NAE’s annual meeting Oct. 1.
Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature” and to ‘the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.”
Christine Mann Darden, director (retired), Strategic Communications Office, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia.u003cstrongu003eu003cemu003eCredits: NASAu003c/emu003eu003c/strongu003e Christine Mann Darden, director (retired), Strategic Communications Office, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, was awarded for pioneering research in supersonic flight technologies and leadership in advancing aerodynamics design to produce low-boom sonic effects. She is internationally known for her research into supersonic aircraft noise, especially sonic boom reduction, and recognized for her groundbreaking achievement as the first African American woman at NASA Langley to be appointed to the top management rank of Senior Executive Service. She is equally known for her efforts to inspire and educate generations of aerospace scientists and engineers.
Christa D. Peters-Lidard, deputy director, Science and Exploration, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.u003cstrongu003eu003cemu003eCredits: NASA Office of the Chief Information Officeru003c/emu003eu003c/strongu003e Christa D. Peters-Lidard, director, Science and Exploration, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, was honored for contributions to understanding land-atmosphere interactions, soil moisture monitoring and modeling, and leadership in Earth system modeling. Her research interests include the application of high-performance computing and communications technologies in Earth system modeling, for which her Land Information System team was awarded the 2005 NASA Software of the Year Award.
Vanessa E. Wyche, director, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston.u003cstrongu003eu003cemu003eCredits: NASAu003c/emu003eu003c/strongu003e Vanessa E. Wyche, director, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston, received the honor for leadership of NASA Johnson, enabling a commercial low-Earth orbit space economy and future Moon and Mars missions. She is responsible for a broad range of human spaceflight activities, including development and operation of human spacecraft, NASA astronaut selection and training, and mission control. Wyche oversees commercialization of low-Earth orbit – ensuring commercially provided destinations to continue research there following transition from the International Space Station in 2030. Additionally, she leads Johnson’s role in exploring the Moon and Mars with NASA’s Artemis spacecraft, including surface system capabilities for human and commercial robotic missions, and partners with academia, industry, and international community to establish a sustainable lunar economy.
Rob Gutro
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
L. Eileen Erickson / Kim Case
National Academy of Engineering
lerickson@nae.edu / KCase@nae.edu
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Last Updated Feb 10, 2025 Related Terms
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