NASA and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have announced plans for the nation’s Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) to provide an airlock for Gateway, the first space station that will orbit the moon.

The airlock will allow crew and science research transfers to and from the habitable environment of Gateway’s pressurised crew modules to the vacuum of space.

NASA said the Gateway will support sustained exploration and research in deep space, provide a home for astronauts to live and work, including a staging point for lunar surface missions, and create an opportunity to conduct spacewalks while orbiting the moon.

MBRSC will also provide a UAE astronaut to fly to the lunar space station on a future Artemis mission and provide engineering support for the life of the space station.

The Gateway space station, which NASA has said will launch no earlier than September 2028, forms part of broader aims for the space agency to return humans to the lunar surface for scientific discovery and chart a path for the first human missions to Mars.

Described as the most diverse and broad coalition of nations in human exploration in deep space, the group also features participation by the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

“The United States and the United Arab Emirates are marking a historic moment in our nations’ collaboration in space, and the future of human space exploration,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson. “The UAE’s provision of the airlock to Gateway will allow astronauts to conduct groundbreaking science in deep space and prepare to one day send humanity to Mars.”

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