NASA Suspends Lunar Gateway to Prioritize a Moon Base

Overview

• NASA, which on Tuesday suspended its planned lunar‑orbit Gateway station, will shift money and staff to a surface base at the Moon’s south pole where shadowed craters hold water ice useful for air and fuel.
• Administrator Jared Isaacman set a roughly $20 billion plan over seven years to build the base through dozens of missions with commercial and international partners.
• The agency laid out a timetable that targets the first astronaut landings in 2028, base construction beginning in 2029, and semi‑permanent stays by 2032, all dependent on Artemis 2.
• Artemis 2, a crewed trip around the Moon, is slated to launch from Florida as soon as April 1, and its success will set the pace for surface missions.
• NASA will try to repurpose usable Gateway hardware, but the fate of European and Japanese modules remains unsettled, as officials cite delays, cost overruns, and China’s lunar plans as drivers of the shift.