NASA's Gateway could become the Moon's first airport – here's how traffic will work

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Forward-looking: Fans of sci-fi games and movies might recall the familiar sight of an airport in space, one packed with aliens traveling on ships to different planets. NASA plans to make a more reality-based version of this within the next two decades: Gateway, a lunar-orbiting station billed as the first lunar spaceport.

A team from Texas A&M University, NASA's Johnson Space Center, and Purdue University has now devised the mathematical flight manual and rules of the road that could stop this cosmic airport from descending into Futurama-style chaos.

Gateway, which NASA officially describes as humanity's first space station around the Moon, is scheduled to launch "no earlier than 2027." It will act as a hub for Orion crew capsules, cargo vehicles, and lunar landers supporting the Artemis program. Previous reports covered the station's powerful solar-electric thrusters and SpaceX's contract to deliver supplies.