NASA's blueprint for returning to the moon just got a major rewrite. New agency chief Jared Isaacman on Tuesday scrapped plans for the Lunar Gateway space station in orbit around the moon, saying its components will instead be folded into a $20 billion moon base over the next seven years, per Reuters. Speaking at NASA headquarters in Washington, Isaacman framed the move as a shift toward infrastructure that supports "sustained operations on the lunar surface." He said the build would be done in three stages across "dozens of missions," per the New York Times.
The first phase would bring robotic landers and other equipment to the moon to aid astronaut transportation, communication, and scientific endeavors, per the Times. The second phase would see the arrival of "semi-habitable infrastructure" allowing regular astronaut visits, and the third phase would launch the construction of permanent infrastructure. Lunar Gateway—largely built by contractors Northrop Grumman and Vantor (formerly Maxar)—had been envisioned as a research outpost and way station where crews would transfer to landers bound for the moon. Repurposing the hardware, Isaacman acknowledged, won't be straightforward, but he argued existing equipment and international commitments can be redirected.
The shake-up is the latest in a series of changes to Artemis, NASA's flagship moon program, and is forcing contractors to rapidly adjust as the US accelerates its plans amid China's push for a lunar landing by 2030. Noting that "the clock is running in this great-power competition," Isaacman said the US would increase the number of missions to two a year after Artemis V, set for 2028. He also said the US would launch a nuclear-propelled spacecraft to Mars by the end of that year, aiming to deliver a fleet of robotic helicopters, per the Times. (Elon Musk has talked of building factories on the moon.)
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