Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California has won NASA'S first contract for Gateway Logistics Services, the delivery of cargo, experiments and other supplies to the small space station, Gateway, that will serve as the hub of deep space exploration in its lunar orbit.Under the deal,SpaceX will deliver critical pressurised and unpressurised cargo, science experiments and supplies,to include sample collection materials and other items needed for Artemis expeditions on the lunar surface.*
The cargo spacecraft will stay docked with Gateway for 6-12 months at a time, NASA said,in support of the Artemis Missions beginning with Artemis III in 2024, the return to the Moon.NASA explained that:
These missions will support NASA'S plans for sustainable exploration with both international and commercial partners, while developing the experience and capabilities necessary to send humans to Mars.*
Dan Hartman, Gateway program manager at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, noted that:
We also anticipate performing a variety of research within the logistics module.*
Artemis I will be an uncrewed test flight in 2021 of the integrated Orion spacecraft, European Service Module and Space Launch System rocket.Artemis II in late 2022 will basically replicate Artemis I's lunar flyby, but with a crew.*
After Artemis II, launches are planned to transport and insert into lunar orbit the Gateway power and propulsion modules-plus the Gateway habitat and docking node for a commercial lunar lander to attach to.*
In the Artemis III Mission,four astronauts will arrive at Gateway in 2024, and two of them will ride the lander to the lunar surface, where they will explore the lunar south polar region for about a week, gathering samples of water ice in a prepositioned unpressurised rover over a distance of 5-15 kilometers.*
Over a period of about 12 years, one Artemis lunar mission a year will prepare the way to Mars in the mid-2030s.*
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