NASA asks Northrop Grumman to stop work on the HALO lunar module

Three months ago, in a spectacular ceremony at their headquarters in Washington, DC, NASA announced that it was transferring the ideas of its lunar plans from the orbiting space to the base of the Moon above.

As part of this, officials said work will be suspended on the Lunar Gateway that is planned to orbit the Moon. Of the two things that went on, NASA also revealed that one of them – the Power and Propulsion Element –it will be fixed again to serve as the main component of a nuclear-electric propulsion demonstration in space.

Less was said about the future of another major unit, the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO). This is the main pressurized compartment, 6.1 meters high, where astronauts spend most of their time visiting the Lunar Gateway. NASA has awarded a $1.1 billion contract to Northrop Grumman to design, build, and integrate the space module and Power and Propulsion Element.

After NASA’s announcement in March, Northrop Grumman began lobbying NASA and others to include the HALO module as part of NASA’s Moon Base plans. However, Ars has learned that this may not happen.

Last week, the key contractor for the HALO module, Paragon Space Development Corp., was told to stop work on the space vehicle, two sources told Ars. In 2022, Paragon received a contract worth more than $100 million establishing a life support system about HALO.