Gateway Lunar Outpost
(Cancelled March 2026)
Gateway was a proposed outpost orbiting the moon to support long-term human presence for lunar missions and serve as a staging point for deep space exploration, such as missions to Mars or the asteroids. The construction of Gateway was not a critical component of the planned 2024 return to the moon. Moon landings can still be achieved without using Gateway as a transfer point.
Key modules would have been:
Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) - a 60 kilowatt solar electric propulsion spacecraft providing communications, attitude control,
and orbital transfer capability.
Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) - A crew cabin for astronauts, providing basic life support, command control, data handling
systems, energy storage, power distribution, thermal control, and communications and tracking capabilities. It will have several
docking ports.
European System Providing Refueling, Infrastructure and Telecommunications (ESPRIT) - Provides additional communications equipment,
an airlock for science experiments, and storage for xenon and hydrazine.
International Habitation Module (I-HAB) - An additional habitation module.
Other proposed modules included a Logistics Module and an Airlock Module.
Artists conception (Credit: NASA)
Gateway configuration (Credit: NASA)
(Credit: NASA)
Page last modified: 24 March 2026 12:15:31.
