Gateway Gets a Special Christmas Delivery
Just a few days before Christmas, NASA’s Gateway Program was buzzing for the delivery of the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) mock-up to the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF) at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Gateway HALO mock-up at the Space Vehicle Mockup Training Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Credits: NASA
Provided by Northrop Grumman, the HALO module is one of Gateway’s foundational habitation elements where Artemis astronauts will live, conduct research, and prepare for lunar-surface missions while visiting Gateway, humanity’s first space station around the Moon. In addition to being a “home away from home” for crew and Gateway’s power distribution hub, HALO hosts extensive deep space capabilities, including command and control systems, environmental regulation, and support for high-data-rate communications.
The mock-up made the approximately 10-mile journey from USM, a subcontractor of Northrop Grumman, to the SVMF on Dec. 21. Representatives from NASA’s HALO project, the SVMF, Northrop Grumman, and USM were on hand to ensure the mock-up safely reached its destination on the floor of the high bay. Space Center Houston visitors got a special treat when they saw the mock-up floating through the SVMF on the facility’s crane.
Following some final touches from Northrop Grumman, the mock-up will be used for human-in-the-loop testing that involves people interfacing with and evaluating hardware to further refine HALO’s design and ensure that the real-life module will be safe and comfortable for crew. The mock-up will eventually be used by international teams of Artemis astronauts to train for future Artemis missions, including Artemis IV, V, and VI that will see delivery and activation of additional Gateway modules.
Congratulations to the Gateway Program on this incredible milestone, especially the Gateway HALO Project Office managed from Johnson!
The Gateway Program is an international collaboration to establish humanity’s first space station around the Moon as an essential element of NASA’s Artemis missions. Gateway will host many capabilities for sustained exploration and research in deep space, including docking ports for a variety of visiting spacecraft, space for crew to live and work, and onboard science investigations to study heliophysics, human health, and life sciences, among other areas. Gateway will be a critical platform for developing technology and capabilities to support future Mars exploration.
For more information on HALO, visit: https://go.nasa.gov/3WlDpzx
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More on Gateway: https://www.nasa.gov/gateway/overview