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Nasa laying the foundation for the Gateway to the stars

US goal: A man and a woman on the Moon in 2024, followed by a crewed mission to Mars

Work is under way at the Kennedy Space Centre for the next big leap into space - putting man on the Moon again and landing humans on Mars.
A new lunar landing module called Blue Moon being unveiled at the Washington Convention Centre in May. Mr Jeff Bezos, owner of Blue Origin, said the module will be used to land humans on the Moon. Nasa rolling back the Artemis launch tower from Pad 3
An artist’s impression of the Gateway, the craft that will orbit the Moon, serving as a kind of mothership from which landers can go back and forth to the Moon’s surface. PHOTO: NASA
A new lunar landing module called Blue Moon being unveiled at the Washington Convention Centre in May. Mr Jeff Bezos, owner of Blue Origin, said the module will be used to land humans on the Moon. Nasa rolling back the Artemis launch tower from Pad 3
Nasa rolling back the Artemis launch tower from Pad 39B into the vehicle assembly building at the Kennedy Space Centre in preparation for the landfall of Hurricane Dorian, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in August. PHOTO: REUTERS
A new lunar landing module called Blue Moon being unveiled at the Washington Convention Centre in May. Mr Jeff Bezos, owner of Blue Origin, said the module will be used to land humans on the Moon. Nasa rolling back the Artemis launch tower from Pad 3
Spectators watching the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifting off from Launch Pad 39A at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre in Titusville, Florida, in April. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A new lunar landing module called Blue Moon being unveiled at the Washington Convention Centre in May. Mr Jeff Bezos, owner of Blue Origin, said the module will be used to land humans on the Moon. Nasa rolling back the Artemis launch tower from Pad 3
A model of a Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo spacecraft on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as Virgin Galactic began public trading in New York on Oct 28. PHOTO: REUTERS
A new lunar landing module called Blue Moon being unveiled at the Washington Convention Centre in May. Mr Jeff Bezos, owner of Blue Origin, said the module will be used to land humans on the Moon. Nasa rolling back the Artemis launch tower from Pad 3
A new lunar landing module called Blue Moon being unveiled at the Washington Convention Centre in May. Mr Jeff Bezos, owner of Blue Origin, said the module will be used to land humans on the Moon. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A new lunar landing module called Blue Moon being unveiled at the Washington Convention Centre in May. Mr Jeff Bezos, owner of Blue Origin, said the module will be used to land humans on the Moon. Nasa rolling back the Artemis launch tower from Pad 3
A selfie of the Curiosity Mars rover on the Red Planet. PHOTO: NASA/ JET PROPULSION LABORATORY- CALTECH/MALIN SPACE SCIENCE SYSTEM
A new lunar landing module called Blue Moon being unveiled at the Washington Convention Centre in May. Mr Jeff Bezos, owner of Blue Origin, said the module will be used to land humans on the Moon. Nasa rolling back the Artemis launch tower from Pad 3
Mr Mark Wiese PHOTO: NASA
A new lunar landing module called Blue Moon being unveiled at the Washington Convention Centre in May. Mr Jeff Bezos, owner of Blue Origin, said the module will be used to land humans on the Moon. Nasa rolling back the Artemis launch tower from Pad 3
A July 20, 1969 photo taken by Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Junior of the lunar lander and the US flag on the surface of the Moon. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Mechanical engineer Breanne Stichler with Nasa's Crawler-Transporter 2 at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in August. She is the youngest and the first female in a while to drive the 3-million-kg machine.
Mechanical engineer Breanne Stichler with Nasa's Crawler-Transporter 2 at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in August. She is the youngest and the first female in a while to drive the 3-million-kg machine. PHOTO: NASA
Nirmal Ghosh US Bureau Chief  In Cape Canaveral
Updated
Nov 12, 2019, 07:52 AM
Published
Nov 12, 2019, 05:00 AM
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Under a blazing Florida sun one recent Friday afternoon at the sprawling Kennedy Space Centre (KSC), with Launch Pad 39B shimmering in the distance, some employees took a short break.

Biologists, engineers, astrophysicists and computer scientists came out on to the balconies with mobile phones and binoculars, peering at the aquamarine blue channel through the emerald green carpet of mangroves leading straight to the pier. Some walked out of their buildings to the pier and waited.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on November 12, 2019, with the headline Nasa laying the foundation for the Gateway to the stars. Subscribe

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MCI (P) 066/10/2023. Published by SPH Media Limited, Co. Regn. No. 202120748H. Copyright © 2024 SPH Media Limited. All rights reserved.

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