The Artemis program, named after Artemis, the goddess of the Moon and sister of Apollo, marks a new phase in space exploration. The launch of the Gateway station symbolizes the evolution of humanity’s space ambitions. Unlike the Apollo missions, which focused on short-term crewed flights, Artemis aims to ensure a long-term human presence on the Moon. Gateway will become the first permanent inhabited structure in lunar orbit, serving as both a scientific laboratory and an intermediate base for future expeditions to Mars. The station will enable better study of the Moon, preparation for upcoming flights, and further development of new technologies for long-duration space missions.
Gateway’s importance
Gateway is one of the most ambitious international projects ever, and its creation is the product of the efforts of an international coalition led by NASA. The station will support long-term human exploration of the Moon, bolster the Artemis campaign, and enable new scientific discoveries. Initially, the project was known as the Deep Space Gateway (DSG. However, in 2018, NASA introduced a new name in its proposal for the 2019 U.S. federal budget: Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G). Here, however, we will use the shortened version: Gateway.

Source: NASA
Technical parameters
Currently, the largest human-made object is the International Space Station (ISS), with a mass of 450 tons, a length of 109 meters, and a width of 73 meters. Gateway’s parameters are far more modest: its dimensions are five times smaller, and its mass is six times less than the ISS. Once assembled, the station will weigh about 63 tons and measure 43 meters in height, 19 meters in width, and 20 meters in length. The internal habitable volume will be around 125 cubic meters, compared to the ISS’s 900 cubic meters, which can accommodate up to 13 people. Gateway, in contrast, will host up to four astronauts at a time. They will focus on scientific research, station maintenance, and preparation for lunar surface missions.
Gateway is expected to achieve speeds of up to 3.2 km/s while orbiting the Moon, compared to the ISS’s maximum orbital speed of 7.67 km/s. The lunar station is designed for an operational lifespan of 15 years, with the potential for significant extension. It is possible that Gateway may prove more durable than the ISS, which is projected to cease operations in 2030 after 32 years of service.
Gateway will be positioned in a polar, near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), alternately approaching the Moon to within about 1,000 miles (1,500 km) and receding to 43,500 miles (70,000 km). This polar orbit will allow spacecraft access to nearly the entire lunar surface, including the South Pole region, the primary target of the Artemis program. In the permanently shadowed craters there, with vast deposits of water ice, astronauts will conduct scientific research and potentially uncover secrets of the Moon’s geological history. Gateway will complete one full orbit around the Moon approximately every 6.5 days.
Brief history: from the idea of returning to the Moon to first tests
The first step toward implementing the Gateway project was taken in December 2017, when President Donald Trump announced that the United States intended to return to the Moon. “This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint,” he said, “we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars and perhaps, someday, to many worlds beyond.” Trump reinforced his words by signing a policy directive referred to at the White House as “Space Policy Directive 1.” Adopted on the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 17 Moon landing, this document calls for collaboration with commercial organizations from various countries to carry out new lunar missions.

Source: Shutterstock
The Gateway program was established in early 2019. In February of that year, Canada announced its intention to join, committing to develop the necessary robotics. Later that year, Japan and the European Space Agency (ESA) also joined the project. Japan will provide habitation components for the lunar module and handle logistical support, while ESA will oversee astronaut accommodations and spacecraft refueling. Official agreements with Japan and Canada were signed in 2020. Around the same time, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) also joined the initiative.
In September 2019, the Gateway project received its own logo. According to its creators, the design is closely tied to future Artemis missions. “The logo symbolizes NASA’s efforts to reach the Moon and Mars,” wrote Deepti Koulidji, a communications specialist, in Roundup Reads for the Johnson Space Center, where the graphic emblem was developed. The logo’s design is thought to have been inspired by one of America’s iconic symbols: the Gateway Arch, often referred to as the “Gateway to St. Louis.” This 192-meter-tall structure, located in Missouri, is the tallest arch in the world.

Source: NASA
NASA has selected SpaceX as the commercial provider for delivering cargo and experimental materials to Gateway while another contractor, Maxar Technologies, will supply components responsible for power generation, maneuvering, attitude control, and communication systems. These will utilize state-of-the-art solar-powered electric engines, which are expected to make the lunar station the most powerful spacecraft ever launched.
Gateway will be partially assembled on Earth, where engineers will integrate the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) modules. Once assembled, the structure will travel toward lunar orbit over the course of a year, during which scientific instruments on board will begin transmitting initial data back to Earth. Upon reaching its destination, preparations will begin for the arrival of the second habitation module, which will house the crew of the Artemis IV mission.
Before this, however, NASA and its partners plan to send two additional spacecraft to Gateway using the SLS rocket: SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System, carrying next-generation spacesuits, and the SpaceX Dragon XL logistics module, equipped with tools and materials for scientific experiments.

Source: Northrop Grumman/Thales Alenia Space
Participant contributions
The United States remains the primary initiator and source of funding for the Gateway project, but its goals also include involving international partners in deep space and Mars exploration. As mentioned earlier, Canada, Japan, the UAE, and ESA all joined the project during its initial stages.
Canada, represented by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), is developing the Canadarm3 robotic manipulator and software interfaces to operate it. The manipulator will be capable of performing maintenance and repair operations on the station, moving LOP-Gateway modules, assisting astronauts during spacewalks, and conducting scientific research autonomously. In exchange for Canadarm3, Canada will gain opportunities for Moon-related scientific research and commercial projects, as well as the chance to send astronauts to Gateway.
One astronaut, CSA’s Jeremy Hansen, is slated to fly as part of Artemis II, the first crewed lunar mission in half a century. This would make Canada the second country to have astronauts fly around the Moon.

Source: NASA
ESA’s contribution includes the development and construction of two major modules. The first, named Lunar I-Hab, will be used for astronaut habitation and research activities. The second, Lunar View, will provide refueling capabilities, cargo logistics, and serve as the only module with large windows, offering views of the Moon, Earth, and deep space.
ESA is also responsible for communication between rovers and Gateway, landers, and other satellites. This will be facilitated by an autonomous telecommunications element called Lunar Link, equipped with two independent antennas. Currently, the French company Thales Alenia Space is working on Lunar Link, promising that its system will enable high-resolution data streaming from the Moon to Earth.
ESA has already secured three astronaut seats on two future missions, likely Artemis IV and Artemis V, during which the I-Hab and ESPRIT modules will be delivered to Gateway.

Source: ESA
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will supply other important components of the Lunar I-Hab module. These include the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), the thermal control system, and power batteries for HALO, Lunar I-Hab, and Lunar View. Additionally, Japan is building the HTV-XG spacecraft for launching and delivering logistical missions to supply Gateway. In return, NASA will provide one JAXA astronaut the opportunity to participate in an Artemis mission, sending them beyond low Earth orbit aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft.
In early January 2024, it was announced that the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in the UAE had taken on the construction of an airlock module, which astronauts and researchers will use for exploration. The airlock will allow crew members to exit the pressurized area into open space and successfully return to the spacecraft.
Although the Gateway lunar outpost won’t be operational for at least a couple of years, here’s a look at how a docking with the Orion spacecraft might occur:
How much will Gateway cost?
Funding for the Gateway lunar station was first allocated in the 2019 budget, when NASA received $450 million for the station, out of a total of $21.5 billion directed to the agency’s operations. At that time, the project was still referred to as the Lunar Orbital Platform, and it was not possible to estimate its final implementation cost. In NASA’s 2025 budget, $817.7 million has been earmarked for the continued construction of the station.
While the United States is investing more in the project than international partners, those partners are also spending significant amounts to send their astronauts to explore the Moon in the future. For example, ESA signed a €296.5 million contract with Thales Alenia Space for the development and production of the ESPRIT refueling and communication module. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) allocated $76.5 million just to support Canadian science as part of the Gateway project over eight years.
Basic estimates for Gateway’s cost are already approaching $5.3 billion, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). This amount is likely not final, as the launch of the first mission has been postponed from late 2024 until 2027. Unfortunately, delays are far from the only issues related to the implementation of the project.
Problems and difficulties
Currently, NASA is trying, if not to accelerate the construction and testing of Gateway modules, then at least to avoid further delays. To achieve this, budgets and timelines for smaller individual projects are regularly reviewed to determine how feasible it will be to launch the station by 2027. The plan is for Gateway to be placed in orbit one year before the crewed Artemis IV mission, during which astronauts will live and work on humanity’s first space-based lunar station. Delaying this timeline is both a bad look and a bad sign for NASA, as this is currently its most ambitious project.
One of the biggest challenges faced by the agency and its international partners is the station’s low mass. If a way to increase its mass is not found, the station will not reach the correct lunar orbit after launch. Furthermore, it will be unable to accommodate large spacecraft: SpaceX’s Starship, for example, weighs 18 times more than the assembled Gateway. If this or other similarly massive ships dock with the station, there is a risk that it will be pushed out of its correct orbit. This would disrupt communications and make it impossible to dock with other, smaller spacecraft. All of this threatens support for future Mars missions, which are among the top priorities for the Gateway project.

Source: NASA
A concerning issue involving the network chip, which was reported by the GAO, has raised alarms. A malfunction of this component could lead to the loss of control over the lunar space station due to unpredictable reboots of the onboard computers. Experts who identified the problem warn that more defects in the communication network may be discovered in the future than initially anticipated.
In addition to organizational concerns, there are risks related to astronaut safety. The station’s location beyond low Earth orbit and Earth’s magnetosphere will make crews more vulnerable to solar and cosmic radiation compared to the exposure experienced by astronauts aboard the ISS. According to a study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, “astronauts will be exposed to high cumulative doses of cosmic radiation in addition to other stress factors.” Scientists still need to determine the impact of these factors on the health of those aboard, such as whether cancer risks will increase, how motor functions might change, and how tissue regeneration will occur. While astronauts were exposed to cosmic radiation during Apollo missions, those exposures lasted less than 11 days, while crews on Gateway will stay up to 90 days.
In the second part of this article, we will discuss the goals of the Gateway lunar space station, the scientific research to be conducted there, and the current stage of the project’s implementation.