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A large, boxy container is lowered onto a flatbed by a crane at right. The container has an Artemis logo on the back and a Northrop Grumman logo on the left side. There are more logos on it, but they are difficult to see. There are several people in orange or yellow high-visibility vests near the container. The night sky makes up the background of the image. The sky darkens as you look upward; the last of a sunset tints the very bottom a rosy pink. You can see a sliver of the Moon toward the top.
NASA/Josh Valcarcel

From the mountains of Turin to the deserts of Arizona, a core element of Gateway, humanity’s first lunar space station, is now one step closer to the Moon. As seen in this April 1, 2025, photo, HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost), Gateway’s first pressurized module and one of its foundational elements, recently arrived in Gilbert, Arizona, following its fabrication by Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy. Now on U.S. soil, the module will undergo final outfitting by primary contractor Northrop Grumman before it’s integrated with the Power and Propulsion Element at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Together, the two modules will launch to lunar orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket ahead of the Artemis IV mission.

HALO will support astronauts visiting Gateway and function as a command and control hub for the space station. It will feature docking ports for spacecraft such as NASA’s Orion, logistics vehicles and lunar landers, and provide data handling, energy storage, power distribution, thermal regulation, and communications and tracking capabilities.

HALO’s arrival marks a major milestone in the construction of Gateway, a cornerstone of NASA’s Artemis campaign to advance science and exploration on and around the Moon in preparation for the next giant leap: the first human missions to Mars.

Image credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel

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