One component, a sort of carrier craft known as a transfer vehicle, would take the lander from Gateway down to a lower orbit. The lunar lander, consisting of three components, also will be launched atop commercial rockets and docked at the Gateway before any astronauts arrive. An artist's impression of a Boeing-built Space Launch System rocket climbing toward space. The modules will be launched to the moon by commercial rockets and assembled under remote control using autonomous docking systems. The Artemis program calls for building a small space station called Gateway made up of a solar-electric propulsion module connected to a pressurized habitation module and a docking port. "I'm very excited to be part of this, to lead this effort." In a break with past practice, where NASA developed a "reference" design that industry then implemented, "what we plan to do is collaborate with industry and bring their speed and our experience to try to have the best team that can make this 2024 goal," Morgan said. You let JSC work the crew module, you let Marshall lead in the propulsion areas, you let Glenn (Research Center) lead in the power systems. "We've partnered extensively with all the other NASA centers through the years, and we intend to keep doing that," she said. Morgan tried to reassure critics that Marshall will work closely with other NASA field centers to ensure success. With modern technology, including high-speed computer networks, teleconferencing and other tools, having engineers in two locations is not the impediment it was in the early days of the space program, he said. "This is about 363 total jobs, 140 of which will be here in Huntsville, 87 would be led out of the Johnson Space Center." "I understand some of their concerns," he said. What a great American story for NASA." An artist's impression of a possible lunar lander design, showing an ascent vehicle, carrying an astronaut crew, blasting off from the surface of the moon.īridenstine made the announcement standing at the base of a towering test version of the 149-foot-tall liquid hydrogen tank that will be used in the first stage of the huge Space Launch System - SLS - rocket being built by Boeing to carry astronauts back to the moon. "The program that will be managed here in northern Alabama is going to land the first woman on the south pole of the moon, and that landing system is being managed by one of NASA's best engineers," Bridenstine said. NASA says it is planning on sending humans back to the moon by 2024 01:49ĭespite protests from Texas lawmakers, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, will manage the agency's plans to build a lunar landing system that will carry the next man and the first woman to the surface of the moon in 2024, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Friday.Īppropriately enough, the critical program will be managed by Alabama native Lisa Watson-Morgan, who earned her engineering degree from the University of Alabama and is a three-decade NASA veteran.
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