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Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate

Goddard’s Core Flight Software Chosen for NASA’s Lunar Gateway

Gateway's habitation and logistics outpost with moon in background.
An illustration showing a close-up of the habitation and logistics outpost (HALO), one of the elements of Gateway.

NASA is improving a flight software system to help create and certify essential software for the lunar Gateway.

As part of the Artemis program, NASA will send astronauts to the Moon and establish a sustained lunar presence by the end of the decade. The Gateway will provide a waypoint for lunar exploration and allow astronauts to live and work in lunar orbit as well as host science instruments and experiments.

While Gateway will not be continuously inhabited like the International Space Station, every system onboard must be at a high standard that guarantees astronaut safety. Class A certification assures that all of Gateway’s systems meet these rigorous requirements.

NASA, industry partners, and international space agencies are working together to develop Gateway. Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is collaborating with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to Class A certify the core Flight System (cFS).

The cFS will be essential to Gateway’s day-to-day operations, and provides the foundation for Gateway flight software, including the Vehicle System Manager, which manages spacecraft instruments and systems while maintaining core functions.

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