Lunar Gateway in the context of "Thales Alenia Space"

The Artemis program is a Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), formally established in 2017 via Space Policy Directive 1. The program is intended to reestablish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, with a stated long-term goal of establishing a permanent base on the Moon. This will facilitate human missions to Mars.

Two principal elements of the Artemis program are derived from the now-cancelled Constellation program: the Orion spacecraft (with the ESM instead of a US-built service module) and the Space Launch System's (SLS) solid rocket boosters (originally developed for the Ares V). Other elements of the program, such as the Lunar Gateway space station and the Human Landing System, are in development by government space agencies and private spaceflight companies, collaborations bound by the Artemis Accords and governmental contracts.

Northrop Grumman Corporation, headquartered in West Falls Church, Virginia, is an American aerospace and defense company that designs and manufactures systems for aeronautics, defense, missions, and space. The company is the 5th largest contractor of the U.S. federal government; it receives over 2% of total spending by the federal government of the United States on contractors.

The company's Aeronautics Systems division (29% of 2024 revenues) develops the B-21 Raider strategic bomber that can drop conventional and thermonuclear weapons (forecasted to be ready for combat in 2029), the B-2 Spirit strategic bomber (which will be replaced by the B-21), fuselage and radar production for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter and F/A-18 Super Hornet, Grumman E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning and control, MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial vehicle, and the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Force. The company's defense systems division (19% of 2024 revenues) designs the modernization of the intercontinental ballistic missile system including the LGM-35 Sentinel, the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System, Vinnell training, and the M1156 precision guidance kit. The company's mission systems division (25% of 2024 revenues) creates military radar, sensors, and related products, including C4I radar systems for air defense, Airspace Management radar systems such as AWACS, Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program, night vision goggles, Airport Movement Area Safety System, and battlefield surveillance systems like the Airborne Reconnaissance Low (ARL). Tactical aircraft sensors include the AN/APG-68 radar, the AN/APG-80 Active electronically scanned array radar, and the AN/APG-83 AESA radar upgrade for the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the AN/APG-77 AESA radar for the F-22 Raptor, and the AN/APG-81 AESA radar for the F-35 Lightning II, and the AN/AAQ-37 electro-optical Distributed Aperture System (DAS) for the F-35, and the APQ-164 Passive Electronically Scanned Array (PESA) radar for the B-1 Lancer. The company's space systems division (27% of 2024 revenues) develops Satcom communications satellites, Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared satellites, the Cygnus uncrewed spacecraft, motors for the NASA Space Launch System, logistics support for the Lunar Gateway, Graphite-Epoxy Motor solid rocket boosters, and satellites for the Norwegian Space Agency.

A Human Landing System (HLS) is a spacecraft in the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Artemis program that is expected to land humans on the Moon. These are being designed to convey astronauts from the Lunar Gateway space station in lunar orbit to the lunar surface, sustain them there, and then return them to the Gateway station. As of 2024 NASA intends to use Starship HLS for Artemis III, an enhanced Starship HLS for Artemis IV, and a Blue Origin HLS for Artemis V.

Rather than leading the HLS development effort internally, NASA provided a reference design and asked commercial vendors compete to design, develop and deliver systems based on a NASA-produced set of requirements. Each selected vendor is required to deliver two landers: one for an uncrewed test lunar landing, and one to be used as the first Artemis crewed lander. NASA started the competition process in 2019 with the Starship HLS selected as the winner in 2021. The original timeline called for an uncrewed test flight before a crewed flight in 2024 as part of the Artemis III mission, but the crewed flight has been delayed to at least 2025.