The Gateway space station’s HALO (Logistics and Habitability Outpost) module, one of four modules where astronauts will live, conduct science and prepare for missions to the lunar surface, is one step closer to launch following the completion of welding in Turin, Italy, a milestone highlighted by NASA earlier this year.
Thales Alenia Space teams gently guide the HALO to a new location at the company’s facility for a series of stress tests to ensure the module’s safety. Once successfully completed, the future astronaut home will travel to Gilbert, Arizona, where Northrop Grumman will complete final outfitting prior to launch into lunar orbit along with the Gateway Power and Propulsion Element.
The initial Gateway configuration will consist of the HALO module, the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE), a Logistics Module (LM), a Lunar Lander (LL), and the Orion spacecraft. As the first pressurized element for NASA’s Lunar Gateway, HALO will be humanity’s first permanent home outside of Earth. HALO’s extensive capabilities will support crew activities that, together with Gateway, will enable sustained operations around the Moon, human exploration of the lunar surface, and extended missions beyond cis-lunar space. HALO will provide comfortable living space that includes scientific operations, mission preparations, communication with Earth and lunar assets, and space for fitness equipment. HALO’s design leverages extensive human factors testing to provide efficient use of space, logical crew interfaces, organized cargo storage, and accessible and maintainable equipment. Additionally, HALO will provide three docking ports for other modules, including the Orion spacecraft, logistics modules, lunar landers and future modules.
NASA and its international partners will explore the scientific mysteries of deep space with Gateway, the first human space station in lunar orbit that supports the Artemis campaign to return humans to the Moon and chart a path for the first human missions to Mars.
