NASA announced today that it is scrapping plans for a lunar orbiting space station in favor of a permanent base on the moon.
“We will invest approximately $20 billion over the next seven years and build [the base] through dozens of missions,” said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman.
It will proceed in three stages, through a series of missions. One, gradually transporting hardware to the moon; two, building a semi-habitable structure for visiting astronauts; and three, turning that into permanent living quarters.
At the same time, NASA is canceling its former plan to put a space station in lunar orbit.
The announcement comes just a week before the launch of the Artemis II mission, which will bring four astronauts to the moon and back for the first time since 1972. The mission will involve just a flyby, not a landing.
