WASHINGTON — NASA says it plans to build a station for astronauts orbiting the moon. The project is called the Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway. <br />The space agency's fiscal year 2019 budget request calls for launching the first element of the Gateway, the power and propulsion module, into space in 2022, according to Space.com. <br />The station would be complete after two additional launches by 2025 to add habitation, logistics and airlock functions. <br /><br />The Gateway could be put in a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit, an orbit in cislunar space that could be used as a staging area for future missions. <br />The platform's position would let astronauts control telerobots on the moon's surface that could be used to explore craters as well as carry out other experiments.
