NASA will invest $20 billion to build a long-term base on the Moon while shelving its planned lunar Gateway station, marking a major shift in its strategy for sustained space exploration.
"The agency intends to pause Gateway in its current form and shift focus to infrastructure that enables sustained surface operations," Jared Isaacman said in a statement given during a day-long event at NASA headquarters in Washington.
"Despite challenges with some existing hardware, the agency will repurpose applicable equipment and leverage international partner commitments to support these objectives," he said.
It's the latest shake-up at NASA in the wake of changes to the Artemis program, which aims to send Americans back to the Moon and establish a long-term presence there, paving the way for eventual missions to Mars.
The Gateway orbital lunar station was meant to serve both as a point of transfer for astronauts headed to the Moon as well as a platform for research.
The suspension of the initiative isn't entirely surprising: some had criticized it as financially wasteful or a distraction from other lunar ambitions.
Putting it on hold will allow for the redirection of efforts and resources towards the construction of the base near the strategic south lunar pole, Isaacman explained, which was already a goal.
Isaacman said NASA now plans to spend $20 billion over the next seven years to construct the base over dozens of missions, "working together with commercial and international partners towards a deliberate and achievable plan."
"There will be an evolutionary path to building humanity's first permanent surface outpost beyond Earth, and we will take the world along with us."
The European Space Agency among other international organizations were partners on the planned Gateway project.
Queried by AFP, the ESA said that it is "currently holding close consultations with its member states, international partners and European industry to assess the implications of this announcement."
Isaacman, who took the helm of NASA late last year, abruptly announced less than a month ago that it was reshuffling its Artemis program that has suffered multiple delays in recent years, as it aims to ensure Americans can return to the Moon's surface by 2028.
That goal remains unchanged, but the U.S. space agency is shifting its flight lineup to include a test mission before an eventual lunar landing to improve launch "muscle memory," Isaacman said.
That strategic revision came amid repeated delays to the Artemis 2 mission, which was originally due to take off as early as February, but is now targeting early April. It is meant to see the first flyby of the Moon in more than half a century.
During his first term, President Donald Trump announced he wanted Americans to once again set foot on the lunar surface.
China is forging ahead with plans for its first crewed mission to the Moon by 2030 at the latest.
The U.S. effort depends in part on the progress of NASA's private partners.
SpaceX and Blue Origin, the respective space companies of dueling billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, are contracted to develop lunar landers used in the Artemis program.
