Orion Program Update:Gateway Launch Date Scheduled

On 9 July 2021,NASA announced that it had finalised a contract with Northrop Grumman for the development of the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) for the Gateway,a small yet critical space station in lunar orbit that will serve as a waypoint and research platform for deep space exploration,including the Artemis Moon missions and missions to Mars.Under the 935 million dollar fixed price contract,Northrop Grumman will attach and test the integrated HALO with the Power and Propulsion Element by Maxar Technologies.Northrop will also lead the HALO/PPE turnover and launch preparations with SpaceX,which is slated to launch them in November 2024 on its Falcon Heavy rocket.Northrop will also support activation and checkout of HALO during the flight to its near-rectilinear lunar orbit,which will take it to tens of thousands of miles beyond the Moon at its farthest point,yet within easy reach of the lunar surface for sustained lunar exploration missions.Thus the core modules will be deployed and ready for the first crewed mission to Gateway.* According to NASA,the Gateway will facilitate inspirational scientific discoveries at and around the Moon,and provide the chance to further develop and test technology and science needed for crewed missions to Mars.Gateway will have pressurised living quarters with command and control systems,and three docking ports for the Orion spacecraft;lunar landers;and logistics resupply spacecraft.With its internal and external payload accomodations,Gateway will host science investigations and communications with lunar surface expeditions.Indeed,HALO will enable the aggregation of further habitable elements,such as the international module by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and ESA.ESA will also provide a refueling module and high-data-rate communications.Immediately after launch,HALO will host the Heliophysics and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite (HERMES) built by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,Maryland.HERMES will conduct research outside HALO.* Gateway's unique orbit will allow NASA and its international and commercial partners to conduct unprecedented deep space science and technology investigations,while also enabling sustained lunar exploration missions.* Canada will provide the Canadarm3 robotic arm for Gateway,and Canadian astronauts will be on the crew of the first crewed mission of the Orion spacecraft in lunar orbit,Artemis 2, and a later mission to Gateway,per an agreement signed by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and NASA.* HALO is based on the design of Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft,which provides logistical support to the International Space Station.* Northrop Grumman (NOC),Maxar Technologies (MAXR)