NASA announced on Friday March 27 that it had chosen SpaceX to refuel its Gateway moon station as part of the Artemis program. The company of Elon Musk will therefore have the heavy task of "delivering essential goods, pressurized or not, scientific experiments and provisions" to the module in orbit around the Moon, said the press release from the American space agency.
"The signing of this contract is an additional essential element of our plan to return to the Moon in the long term," commented NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. The American lunar program aims in particular to bring to the surface of our satellite, in 2024, new astronauts, including for the first time a woman.
SpaceX will launch a variant of Dragon, optimized to carry more than 5 metric tons of cargo to Gateway in lunar orbit https://t.co/NdJaFU1xSD
- SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 27, 2020A Dragon XL ship
SpaceX reacted the same day to the NASA announcement. On Twitter, the company said it would use a modified version of its Dragon spacecraft to refuel the station. The spacecraft will be designed to "transport more than five tonnes of goods to Gateway in lunar orbit". The aircraft will be baptized Dragon XL and will be powered by the heavy launcher Falcon Heavy which could eventually give way to the Starship, explains Numerama .
Once docked with Gateway, Dragon XL will provide station occupants with additional space. The latter will notably be used to store the waste which will then be brought back to Earth by the SpaceX spacecraft. The latter already has experience in space supply since it contributes to the delivery of provisions and equipment to the International Space Station (ISS).
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- Moon
- Nasa
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