NASA evaluated a potential change proposed by SpaceX to its Gateway logistics architecture<\/a>, although neither SpaceX nor NASA disclosed details at the time. The agency planned to decide whether to accept that revision by mid-2025.<\/p>\nWiese said NASA studied the possibility of using Starship to support Gateway logistics in place of Dragon XL. \u201cWe could further understand where they\u2019re going commercially and how that could potentially support logistics needs as we go out to cislunar space,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Work on Gateway logistics paused last year following the administration\u2019s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal, which sought to cancel the Gateway. Congress, however, funded the program in the budget reconciliation bill passed last July.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, we\u2019re sitting at a crossroads with those two potential architectures with SpaceX,\u201d Wiese said, as NASA awaits policy direction on how to proceed. That guidance is likely to come sometime after the Artemis 2 mission, scheduled to launch as soon as early February.<\/p>\n
His program has also been involved in broader studies of cislunar transportation. In August, NASA selected six companies for short-term studies of orbital transfer vehicle concepts that could operate in cislunar space and other \u201cdifficult-to-reach\u201d orbits. The nine studies, with a combined value of $1.4 million, went to Arrow Science and Technology, Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Impulse Space, Rocket Lab and United Launch Alliance.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have logistics successfully, we\u2019ve got to have transportation all through cislunar space,\u201d he said. The studies were conducted in cooperation with NASA\u2019s Launch Services Program through its Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare Launch Services, or VADR, contract.<\/p>\n
Those studies have been completed and reviewed, Wiese said, as NASA evaluates next steps. \u201cWe\u2019re eying ideas of ways we could do demonstration missions to try to further incubate that market,\u201d he said, with the goal of enabling multiple companies to perform logistics deliveries in cislunar space.<\/p>\n
As with Gateway logistics, he said he expects NASA to decide how to proceed on any next steps after Artemis 2.<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 NASA is at a \u201ccrossroads\u201d in deciding how to handle logistics for the lunar Gateway…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":552762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[242343,73950,30148,159,16988,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-552761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-dragon-xl","9":"tag-gateway","10":"tag-lunar-gateway","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-sn","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115981285242094197","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}