The Gateway is intended to serve as a communication hub, science laboratory, and habitation module for astronauts as part of the Artemis program.

[11] While the project is led by NASA, the Gateway is meant to be developed, serviced, and used in collaboration with the CSA, ESA, JAXA, and commercial partners.

[12][7][13] Formerly known as the Deep Space Gateway (DSG), the station was renamed Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) in NASA's 2018 proposal for the 2019 United States federal budget.

[16][17] In November 2019, NASA unveiled the name and logo of the space station inspired by the American frontier symbol of the St. Louis Gateway Arch.

An earlier NASA proposal for a cislunar station had been made public in 2012 and was dubbed the Deep Space Habitat.

[20] The solar electric Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) of the Gateway was originally a part of the now-canceled Asteroid Redirect Mission.

[27] On 1 November 2017, NASA commissioned five studies lasting four months into affordable ways to develop the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE), leveraging private companies' plans.

The companies performing the PPE studies were Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK, Sierra Nevada and Space Systems/Loral.

The proposed NRHO would allow lunar expeditions from the Gateway to reach a low polar orbit with a Δv of 730 m/s and a half a day of transit time.

The crewed mission duration of 21 days and Δv ≈ 840 m/s is limited by the capabilities of the Orion life support and propulsion systems.

The Gateway could conceivably also support in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) development and testing from lunar and asteroid sources,[42] and would offer the opportunity for a gradual buildup of capabilities for more complex missions over time.

Both PPE and HALO will be assembled on Earth and launched together on a Falcon Heavy rocket in 2027[1][44] They are expected to reach lunar orbit after nine to ten months.

[45] The I-Hab module, a contribution from ESA and JAXA, is to be launched on the SLS Block 1B as a co-manifested payload on the Artemis IV crewed Orion mission.

[104] Former NASA astronaut Terry W. Virts, who was a pilot of STS-130 aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour and commander of the ISS on Expedition 43, wrote in an op-ed on Ars Technica that the Gateway would "shackle human exploration, not enable it".

Regardless of a future destination, as someone who lived on the ISS for 200 days, I cannot envision a new technology that would be developed or validated by building another modular space station.

Virts further criticized NASA for abandoning its planned goal of separating crew from cargo, which was put in place following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.

[107] Mars Society founder Robert Zubrin called the Gateway "NASA's worst plan yet" in an article in the National Review.

He added that it was not planned to be used as a rocket fuel depot and that stopping at the Gateway on the way to or from the Moon would serve no useful purpose and cost propellant.

[109] Mark Whittington, a contributor to The Hill newspaper and an author of several space exploration studies, stated in an article that the "lunar orbit project doesn't help us get back to the Moon".

[110] Astrophysicist Ethan Siegel wrote an article in Forbes titled "NASA's Idea For A Space Station In Lunar Orbit Takes Humanity Nowhere".

[111] On July 31, 2024, the United States Government Accountability Office found that the Gateway has run into technical problems in its communications and propulsion systems which have yet to be addressed by NASA.

Dan Hartman, the program manager for Gateway, on 30 March 2020, told Ars Technica that the benefits of using Gateway are extending the mission duration, buying down risk, providing research capability and the capability to re-use ascent modules.When you go single, I'll say direct mission to the Moon, you're limited on the supplies, either with the Lander or with Orion.

Obviously, the more crew time you have in lunar orbit helps us with research in the human aspects of living in deep space.