When the primary two segments of NASA’s Gateway station make their solution to the Moon someday in 2024, they’ll be carried into house by a Falcon Heavy rocket. The $331.8 million settlement, which the company announced on Tuesday, is the second launch contract NASA has awarded to SpaceX in as many weeks.
As soon as it’s safely in lunar orbit, the Gateway will function a means station for astronauts and gear heading to the Moon as a part of NASA’s Artemis program. The pair of modules SpaceX will ferry into house are the ability and propulsion aspect (PPE) and the habitation and logistics outpost (HALO), which two separate corporations are constructing for NASA for $375 million and $187 million respectively. The previous will present Gateway with energy and permit the station to maneuver to completely different lunar orbits, whereas the latter will give astronauts a spot to remain on their solution to the Moon. The mission will blast off from Kennedy Area Middle in Could of 2024 on the earliest.
Within the lead as much as Artemis, NASA has been awarding contracts to personal corporations to hurry up the undertaking’s timeline. In January, nevertheless, it got here out that the company had quietly pushed back the award timeframe for 2 lander contracts from late February to the top of April, which has solid doubt over whether or not NASA will be capable of meet its formidable 2024 purpose for Artemis.
