NASA tasks SpaceX with sending cargo and supplies to future lunar space station
An artistic rendering of SpaceX’s proposed Dragon XL cargo spacecraft | Image: SpaceX
Despite the worsening coronavirus pandemic in the US, NASA is still looking ahead to its long-term goal of sending humans back to the lunar surface and is now asking SpaceX to start doing cargo runs to the Moon in the near future. NASA awarded the aerospace company with a new contract this afternoon, tasking SpaceX with sending cargo and supplies to a space station that NASA wants to build in the Moon’s orbit.
The new partnership is a big piece of NASA’s Artemis program, an initiative to land the first woman on the lunar surface by 2024. As part of the program, NASA has proposed building a space station in orbit around the Moon called the Gateway, where astronauts can work and train before heading down to the lunar soil. Just like the...