Lunar Gateway

The Lunar Gateway is a planned small space station that would circle the Moon in a near-rectilinear halo orbit, serving as a staging point, communications relay and science platform for NASA's Artemis program. Unlike the International Space Station in low Earth orbit, it is not meant to be permanently crewed, and would host astronauts for stays of about 30 to 90 days. The chosen orbit swings as close as roughly 1,500 kilometers to the lunar north pole and as far as 70,000 kilometers over the south pole, with a period near seven days, which keeps station-keeping fuel use low and gives near-continuous line of sight to Earth. Its first two modules are the Power and Propulsion Element, built by Maxar Technologies, and the Habitation and Logistics Outpost, built by Northrop Grumman, planned to launch together on a Falcon Heavy. European, Japanese and Canadian partners are to supply habitation, life support and robotic arm elements. The schedule has slipped repeatedly and its budget has been contested.