SpaceX boasts the Falcon Heavy rocket on the launch pad.
SpaceX
SpaceX is known for it dramatic launches and landings, and now it has yielded another very high launch contract from NASA. The agency chose Elon Musk’s rocket company to send the initial components of its long-awaited lunar gate into space.
The Gateway was considered to be humanity’s first long-term outpost at the moon, a kind of mini-space station. But unlike the International Space Station, which surrounds our planet in a relatively low orbit, the Gateway will orbit the moon. It will support 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 rocket system will introduce the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO), which are the key parts of the Gateway.
The HALO is the pressurized living quarters that will house visiting astronauts. The PBT is similar to the car and systems that keep everything going. NASA describes it as a 60-kilowatt-class solar electric spacecraft that also offers power, high-speed communication, 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-body configuration, consisting of three Falcon 9 boosters fastened together, on top of a second phase and the payload.
Since the debut of 2018 Elon Musk’s Tesla in the direction of Mars in a widespread demonstration, a Falcon Heavy has flown only twice before. Falcon Heavy plans to set up and launch some military satellites later this year NASA’s Psyche Mission in 2022.
The launch of the Lunar Gateway’s PPE and HALO is currently in May 2024 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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