WASHINGTON– NASA has actually awarded an agreement worth $935 million to Northrop Grumman to develop and integrate the first habitation module for the lunar Gateway.
NASA revealed July 9 it completed a contract with Northrop Grumman to build the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module for the Gateway. That module, among the first for the Gateway, will serve as an environment for visiting astronauts and a command post for the lunar orbiting center. It will have docking ports for Orion spacecraft, freight cars like SpaceXs Dragon XL and lunar landers, in addition to for later on modules to be included by worldwide partners.
HALO is based on the Cygnus spacecraft that Northrop Grumman uses to transport freight to the International Space Station, however thoroughly modified with docking ports, improved life assistance and other brand-new subsystems. “By leveraging our active Cygnus assembly line, Northrop Grumman can distinctively provide a trustworthy and budget-friendly HALO module in the time frame needed to support NASAs Artemis program,” stated Steve Krein, vice president of civil and business satellites at Northrop Grumman, in a company declaration.
The fixed-firm-price agreement covers assembly of HALO along with integrating it with another Gateway module, the Maxar-built Power and Propulsion Element (PPE). Northrop will also be accountable under the contract for preparing the combined modules for launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, in addition to activation and checkout of HALO after launch.
” This action puts in place the last contract part of a diverse, diverse group– dispersed across the nation and within some worldwide partner centers– collaborating to produce and carry out the initial Gateway ability,” Jon Olansen, NASA supervisor of the HALO task, stated in an agency statement.
NASA has been engaged with Northrop Grumman on HALO for nearly two years under a series of agreements worth more than $1.1 billion. In July 2019, NASA mentioned in a procurement filing that it would release a sole-source agreement to Northrop Grumman for a habitation module based on work the company did under a Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) award dating back to 2016. Northrop Grumman was one of six companies that received NextSTEP awards for studies of habitation modules, however NASA concluded that Northrop was the only one whose style would be all set to satisfy the 2024 deadline embeded in March 2019 for returning people to the surface of the moon.
NASA then released a $187 million agreement in June 2020 to cover work on HALO through the initial design evaluation. That evaluation, at the time of the agreement announcement, was set up for the end of 2020 but did not occur up until May.
Over the last 2 years the prepare for the Gateway have actually altered. NASA initially proposed releasing the PPE and HALO individually, then docking them in the near-rectilinear orbit the Gateway will use. In 2020, though, NASA altered course and concluded combining the two elements on the ground and introducing them on a single automobile would save the expense of a single launch along with lower complexity.
Those altering plans, though, have created cost increases and technical issues for the Gateway, according to a report by NASAs Office of Inspector General in November 2020. It also alerted that, with a launch no earlier than May 2024, the PPE and HALO would not be in position to support an Artemis 3 lunar landing objective, if that objective held to a 2024 schedule as the firm planned at the time.
The launch of the Gateway modules has actually slipped further. In the NASA announcement of the agreement, the firm stated that the PPE and HALO would introduce on a Falcon Heavy in November 2024. NASA has not updated the schedule for the Artemis 3 objective, and the agency previously specified that the Orion spacecraft might dock straight with the lunar lander– SpaceXs Starship, if NASAs agreement awarded in April stands up to demonstrations filed with the Government Accountability Office– in the near-rectilinear halo orbit, instead of utilize the Gateway.
However, the agency continues to anticipate to utilize the Gateway as a staging location for future lunar lander objectives as part of the later on, “sustainable” stage of lunar expedition. “NASA is constructing the facilities to broaden human expedition further out into the planetary system than ever previously, consisting of Gateway, the lunar space station that will assist us make inspiring clinical discoveries at and around the moon,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stated in the statement. “The HALO is a crucial component of Gateway, and this amazing statement today brings us one action more detailed to landing American boots on both the moon and Mars.”

NASA announced July 9 it settled a contract with Northrop Grumman to develop the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module for the Gateway. NASA initially proposed introducing the PPE and HALO individually, then docking them in the near-rectilinear orbit the Gateway will utilize. NASA has actually not updated the schedule for the Artemis 3 mission, and the company previously specified that the Orion spacecraft could dock directly with the lunar lander– SpaceXs Starship, if NASAs contract awarded in April stands up to demonstrations submitted with the Government Accountability Office– in the near-rectilinear halo orbit, rather than utilize the Gateway.
“NASA is constructing the facilities to expand human exploration even more out into the solar system than ever before, including Gateway, the lunar area station that will assist us make inspiring scientific discoveries at and around the moon,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in the statement.