NASA’s Artemis IV: Building Gateway, Humanity’s First Lunar Space Station

The Artemis IV mission is a pivotal step in NASA’s long-term lunar exploration strategy, featuring the construction of Gateway, the first lunar space station, which will serve as a base for scientific research and future missions to Mars. The mission will employ a new, more powerful version of NASA’s SLS rocket and a series of complex orbital maneuvers to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon.

NASA and its partners are advancing the essential systems required for sustained exploration at the Moon through the Artemis campaign. The Artemis III mission aims to land the first humans near the Moon’s South Pole, setting the stage for the Artemis IV mission. In this next phase, astronauts will inhabit Gateway, humanity’s first lunar space station, which will facilitate groundbreaking scientific research and preparations for eventual human missions to Mars. Artemis IV will coordinate a complex choreography of multiple launches and spacecraft dockings in lunar orbit, marking the first use of NASA’s upgraded, more powerful SLS rocket and a new mobile launcher.