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NASA is cancelling its plans for an orbiting lunar space station and will instead spend $20 billion to build a permanent base on the surface of the moon, the agency's new chief announced Tuesday (March 24).
Jared Isaacman, who was sworn in as NASA administrator in December, made the announcement at a day-long event at the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters. The meeting brought together partners, contractors, U.S. representatives, and international government officials connected to the Artemis program, NASA's flagship lunar effort.
The Lunar Gateway station, largely already built by contractors Northrop Grumman and Vantor, was originally designed to orbit the moon. It was meant to serve as both a research platform and a transfer hub, where astronauts would board landers before descending to the lunar surface. Isaacman now wants to repurpose its components for use on the moon itself.
He acknowledged the plan won't be easy. "Despite some of the very real hardware and schedule challenges, we can repurpose equipment and international partner commitments to support surface and other program objectives," Isaacman said.
NASA plans to invest the $20 billion over the next seven years, with the goal of enabling humans to live on the lunar surface long-term. The shift represents a major strategic overhaul of the Artemis program, reshaping billions of dollars' worth of contracts in the process.
The sweeping changes Isaacman has made to Artemis since taking the helm are among the most significant in the program's history, and the full impact on contractors and international partners is still coming into focus.
“If we concentrate NASA’s extraordinary resources on the objectives of the National Space Policy, clear away needless obstacles that impede progress, and unleash the workforce and industrial might of our nation and partners, then returning to the Moon and building a base will seem pale in comparison to what we will be capable of accomplishing in the years ahead," Isaacman said.