NASA Shapes Plan For Lunar Space Station Written 16 March 2018

SPACE reports that NASA is “pressing forward on plans to build a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway” positioned near the moon. The Gateway could be “parked in what scientists call a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO), an orbit in cislunar space that could serve as a staging area for future missions.” According to NASA, the Gateway will host instruments and support a variety of missions to the lunar surface. NASA’s fiscal year 2019 budget calls for launching the Gateway’s power and propulsion module in 2022, and the agency “plans to launch the module through a competitive commercial launch contract in an effort to both speed up establishment of the Gateway and advance commercial partnerships in deep space.” Two additional launches would complete the station by 2025. NASA hosted several hundred “scientists from a wide range of disciplines” between February 27 and March 1 for the Deep Space Gateway Concept Science Workshop to discuss the agency’s strategy for the platform. According to NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate Chief Exploration Scientist Ben Bussey, the station will be “a lot smaller” than the ISS.
More Info (SPACE)