NASA announces contract for space station to orbit moon

Since March, when Vice President Mike Pence suddenly announced a program to get humans to the surface of the moon by 2024, NASA has been scrambling to pull off what many think is a near-impossible feat.

But the agency took a significant step toward that goal Thursday, awarding a contract to a Colorado company to build the first element of a small space station that the space agency wants to put in orbit around the moon.

Maxar, based in Westminster, will build the power and propulsion element of the orbiting outpost, known as the Gateway.

Instead of going directly to the surface of the moon, as was done during the Apollo program, NASA wants to build the Gateway for its lunar missions, which it has dubbed Artemis. In addition to the power and propulsion element, the Gateway could have a habitat for astronauts; vehicles would be able to shuttle astronauts to and from the lunar surface.

“And what the Gateway gives us is more access to more parts of the moon, and that access is not just landers — again it’s with robots and rovers and landers and even human landers,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said. “Think of it as a command module, a permanent command module around the moon that can ultimately control these missions on the surface.”

Maxar is a global provider of advanced space technology, working on satellites, robotics, Earth imagery, geospatial data, analytics and insight, according to its website.

To make the 2024 deadline, the White House increased its budget request by $1.6 billion. But it has not said how much the entire program would cost.

That has made some in Congress skeptical.

“We’re still left with a lot of unanswered questions about how we get to 2024,” Rep. Kendra Horn, D-Okla., chairwoman of a subcommittee that oversees NASA, said in a recent interview.

She and other Democrats criticized the administration for a plan to take the $1.6 billion from the Pell Grant program, which helps make college more afford

able.

“We’re going to need more rocket scientists, not fewer,” she said. “Pell Grants is an important program.”

The White House has said the Pell Grant program is overfunded. Bridenstine has said that no money would be taken from other NASA programs to fund Artemis.

Bridenstine has said NASA’s return to the moon has been thwarted not by technical reasons but because of “political risks.”

Thursday’s was the most recent announcement of a Colorado company securing an important role in the nation’s exploration of space.

In November, Lockheed Martin and Deep Space Systems were designated as two of nine companies who were eligible to bid on NASA delivery services to the lunar surface, according to The Associated Press.

Colorado’s aerospace economy is second only to California’s.

As of fall 2018, Colorado had 180 aerospace companies and more than 500 businesses that provide space-related products and services.