SpaceX shows off the Falcon Heavy rocket on the launch pad.
SpaceX
SpaceX is known for its dramatic launches and landings, and now it has landed yet another very high profile launch contract from NASA. The agency has selected Elon Musk’s rocket company to send the first components of its highly anticipated lunar port into space.
The Gateway is conceived as humanity’s first long-term station on the moon, a sort of mini space station. But unlike the International Space Station, which orbits our planet in a relatively low orbit, the Gateway will orbit the moon. It supports upcoming astronaut missions as part of NASA’s Artemis Mission to return to the lunar surface and establish a permanent presence there.
Specifically, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy missile system will launch the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO), which are the main components of the Gateway.
The HALO is the pressurized living space where astronauts will reside. The PPE is related to the engine and systems that keep everything running. NASA describes it as “a 60-kilowatt-class solar spacecraft that will also provide power, high-speed communications, attitude control, and the ability to move the Gateway to different lunar orbits.”
Illustration of the Gateway at the moon.
NASA
The Falcon Heavy is SpaceX’s heavy-lift configuration consisting of three Falcon 9 boosters tied together, topped with a second stage and payload.
Since its debut in 2018 Tesla by Elon Musk towards Mars in a much-seen demonstration, a Falcon Heavy has only flew twice. Falcon Heavy is scheduled to house and launch a few military satellites later this year NASA’s Psyche Mission in 2022.
The Lunar Gateway’s PPE and HALO are currently scheduled to launch no earlier than May 2024 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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