ESA Director of Human and Robotic Exploration Daniel Neuenschwander shared images of the International Habitat (I-Hab) and Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) modules for NASA’s Gateway space station under construction at the Thales Alenia Space facility in Turin, Italy.
Neuenschwander shared the images on LinkedIn late last week, a rare glimpse behind the scenes of some of the individual components of the Gateway space station coming together. According to Neuenschwander, the images are a testament to how significantly ESA and European industry are involved in the Artemis programme.
While the pressurized module for HALO has the distinct shape of its final form, I-HAB is still just multiple individual rings awaiting integration. This is down to priority, with HALO expected to be launched well before I-HAB in late 2025. I-HAB is only expected to begin its journey to lunar orbit towards the end of 2028.
I-HAB is one of two ESA contributions to the Gateway space station and is being developed in collaboration with JAXA. ESA awarded a €327-million contract to Thales Alenia Space in October 2020 for the development and manufacture of the I-HAB module. Thales was also awarded the contract for the ESPRIT communications and refueling module, which is ESA’s other major contribution to the space station.
The ten cubic metres of habitable volume within I-HAB will feature a small galley and personal crew compartments for visiting astronauts. I-HAB will also feature docking ports both for attaching the module to Gateway and for visiting vehicles.
NASA selected Northrop Grumman to build HALO in July 2019. HALO will be launched along with the Power and Propulsion Element module to form the initial building blocks of the Gateway space station in lunar orbit. While Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the development of HALO, the company awarded a contract to Thales Alenia Space in December 2020 to develop the pressurized element of the module. The agreement extended a long-lasting partnership between the two companies, with Thales having supplied pressurized modules for the Northrop Cygnus space station resupply spacecraft since 2013.
The HALO and I-HAB modules will provide enough room for up to four astronauts to stay aboard the station for as long as 90 days at a time.
