NASA passes its first order of components of the Lunar Gateway – BGR



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NASA has big plans to return to the moon. It remains to be seen if this will be possible in the next five years, as the current administration wishes, but NASA has a firm intention to hand over human boots on the lunar surface, which it will do through a Gateway. "

The bridge, planned for some time, will be a station in orbit around the Moon and will provide a starting point for the mission, on the surface of the Moon and possibly beyond. Building this will be a huge undertaking, and the companies involved in the project must be carefully controlled. Yesterday, NASA announced the first manufacturing partner with which it will work to make the bridge a reality.

At a press conference held yesterday, NASA announced that it had reached an agreement with Maxar Technologies, a Colorado-based company, to jointly develop some of the most vital gateway systems.

"Power and Propulsion is the foundation of Gateway and a great example of how partnerships with US companies can help accelerate NASA's return to the moon with the first woman and the next man by 2024, "said NASA Administrator Brentine. "This will be the key element on which we will build our Gateway Lunar Outpost, a cornerstone of NASA's sustainable and reusable Artemis exploration architecture on and around the Moon."

In total, Maxar will earn up to $ 375 million through this contract, which will initially last 12 months. After that, NASA and the company will have several extensions at their disposal, but it all depends on how things will unfold in the months to come.

Over the next year, NASA and Maxar will finalize the design of the "power and propulsion" components of the spacecraft. Once this item is built and launched, a long test period will see the spaceship stay in space for a whole year. Maxar will own the spacecraft until NASA is satisfied with what she will see. The agency will then have the opportunity to acquire it for use with the gateway.

Source of image: NASA

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