SpaceX has just been awarded a major contract to launch two parts of a future lunar space station

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The Artemis program is the US government’s plan to establish a permanent human presence in deep space.

SpaceX will launch “the basic elements of the Gateway” – including a cylindrical module that will serve as a living space for astronauts and a large, box-shaped unit that will provide power and communications services to the space station – aboard one of its Falcon Heavy rockets ” no earlier than May 2024, “NASA said in a press release this week.

The deal makes it clear that NASA’s plans to establish a human settlement on the moon will rely heavily on SpaceX’s rockets, which the company has billed for years as cheaper alternatives to the rockets made by legacy launch providers like United Launch. Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

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The Falcon Heavy, which looks like three of SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rockets tied together, debuted in 2018 and attracted widespread attention to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s decision to use his cherry red Tesla roadster as a dummy. payload for the Falcon Heavy’s first launch. .

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NASA’s Artemis program aims to return a male and female astronaut to the lunar surface by 2024, marking the first time humans have set foot on the moon since NASA’s Apollo program nearly ended. five decades ago. The name Artemis is a tribute to that lineage: in Greek mythology, Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo.

The Gateway Space Station IThis is an important part of NASA’s vision for that mission and for countless future missions as the agency is looking for a permanent lunar habitat. The Gateway, which will be about one-sixth the size of the International Space Station, will provide astronauts with a command center, working and sleeping quarters. Spacecraft carrying astronauts on lunar trips can dock at the space station, and from there they can board a lunar lander that takes them from the Gateway to the lunar surface.

SpaceX – in addition to having its own, separate plans to establish a human settlement on Mars – is expected to support NASA’s Artemis program in other ways. NASA has awarded SpaceX a contract for Dragon XL – an upgraded version of the capsule that SpaceX currently uses to transport astronauts and cargo to and from the ISS – to deliver supplies to the Gateway station.

SpaceX is also one of several companies competing for the contract to build NASA’s Human Landing System, the vehicle that will transport astronauts from the Gateway to the lunar surface.

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