HERMES Mission Passes Key Milestone, Moves Toward Launch

Illustration of the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) and Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) of Gateway, with HERMES indicated by a red arrow. This older view shows HERMES in a different placement than its current planned location, which would be rotated 90 degrees on the HALO module and would not be visible from this vantage point. Credit: NASA

NASA’s HERMES mission – a four-instrument suite to be mounted outside NASA’s Moon-orbiting Gateway – has passed a critical mission review on Jan. 27, 2022.

The review, Key Decision Point C, evaluated the mission’s preliminary design and program plan to achieve launch by its target launch readiness date no earlier than November 2024. With the successful review, HERMES now moves into Phase C, which includes the final design of the mission.

“HERMES will be a critical part of the Artemis mission and NASA’s goals to create a permanent presence on the Moon,” said Jamie Favors, HERMES program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. “We’re very excited to pass this critical milestone and move closer to launch.”

HERMES, short for Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite, will be mounted outside the Habitation and Logistics Outpost module of NASA’s Gateway outpost. Gateway will be where Artemis astronauts live and work as they orbit the Moon, supporting scientific experiments and technology development applicable for both lunar and future deep space human exploration.

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