Lunar Gateway
The Lunar Gateway, or simply Gateway, is a planned small space station in lunar orbit intended to serve as a solar-powered communication hub, science laboratory, short-term habitation module for government-agency astronauts, as well as a holding area for rovers and other robots. It is a multinational collaborative project involving four of the International Space Station partner agencies: NASA, European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Canadian Space Agency. It is planned to be both the first space station beyond low Earth orbit and the first space station to orbit the Moon. Formerly known as the Deep Space Gateway, the station was renamed Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway in NASA's 2018 proposal for the 2019 United States federal budget. When the budgeting process was complete, US$332 million had been committed by Congress to preliminary studies.