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NASA signed a $ 935 million contract with Northrop Grumman to build the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module for the Lunar Gateway.
The contract will also require the aerospace equipment to integrate the module with the power and propulsion element being built by Maxar Technologies.
HALO will be both a habitat for the crew and, with three docking ports, a hub for visiting spacecraft. Derived from Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus freighter, used to transport cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), it will not be the largest of the pressurized spaces (certainly compared to the ISS) although it is expandable via modules additional (including the International Module Habitation – launch planned for 2026).
Illustration showing the close-up of HALO, one of the elements of Gateway. Credit: NASA
The module will also accommodate NASA’s Orion spacecraft, lunar landers and logistics vehicles. NASA described the size as that of a “small studio” when it awarded Northrop Grumman a $ 187 million contract to design the module in 2020.
A critical design review will take place in 2022. Delivery of the HALO module to the launch site is scheduled for 2024 for a November launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said, “The HALO is an essential component of Gateway, and this exciting announcement today brings us one step closer to landing the US boots on the Moon and Mars.”
The bridge, of which the HALO is a part, will be in an almost rectilinear orbit that will bring the complex within range of the lunar landers as close as possible to the Moon and tens of thousands of kilometers away.
NASA is supposed to put the boots back on the moon by 2024, but that goal seems increasingly unrealistic over time. That said, the agency continued to move forward with its own monster rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), and last week stacked the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) atop the SLS.
ICPS ‘single engine RL10 will be tasked with sending the Orion spacecraft (and its European-built service module) to the moon during the SLS’s first unmanned launch. NASA continues to target a 2021 launch for Artemis 1. ®
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