Advocates Call for Prioritization of Lunar Surface Habitation as NASA Leak Casts Doubt on Artemis Timeline
Whistleblower-provided document reported on by Ars Technica showing alternative Artemis schedules emphasizing ‘Cadence’ and ‘Content’ with focus on Lunar Gateway through 2031/2, relegating surface habitation to NET 2034, prompts calls for adherence to space policy articulated in 2020, “Next American man / first American woman on the Moon by 2024, followed by sustained presence on the Moon by 2028”; Replacing Gateway with SpaceX Starship-based station emerging as viable alternative method to meeting Lockheed Martin Orion fueling needs while accelerating progress towards human multi-world civilization
While CAPSTONE is fueled and integrated with Photon spacecraft bus within Electron fairing at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on Māhia NZ, new mission schedule is pending per NASA PAO; When launched Capstone to travel 1,549,798km from Earth before settling into NRHO; Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines working to land by EOY; Image of BE-4 flight engine shared by ULA CEO raises hopes for Vulcan Centaur readiness but 2022 integration / launch of Peregrine doubtful; IM welcomes Lunar Flashlight cubesat as co-payload on Falcon 9 launch nominally set for 22 Dec
Power and Propulsion Element of Lunar Gateway under development by Maxar to utilize 6 and 12kW Hall-effect ion thruster systems built by Busek and Aerojet Rocketdyne with Moog xenon propellant feeder and Maxar power processing unit; Current testing regimen comes after initial testing phase finds both systems ‘capable of performing across the full mission power range’; SEP to keep Gateway on efficient NRHO during 15-year mission after Q4 2024 launch via SpaceX Falcon Heavy; Tiangong space station is only human-rated ion-powered spacecraft
NASA now targeting 6-22 June window for inaugural Artemis-era CAPSTONE launch to validate unique orbit around Moon, holding 
50 objectives of deep space exploration across 4 categories (Transportation / Habitation, Lunar / Martian Infrastructure, Operations, Science) delineated in 
Lunar cooperation to be topic of President Biden meeting with Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on 22-23 May stop of Asia tour, with Kyodo News of Toyko reporting a joint statement on Japan Astronaut participation in Artemis landings and plan outlining broad space cooperation to be released during summit; Commercial enterprise ispace and space agency JAXA planning robotic Moon landings HAKUTO-R and SLIM in late 2022 / 2023; 4th nation to launch a satellite, ISS partner nation Japan hopes to be 2nd nation with citizen on Moon
