2018-08-07
Bridenstine: So the Gateway represents... When we think about the architecture, we know what reusable rockets have done for the United States of America and for our access to space. And those reusable rockets are available because we have done things like Commercial Crew, Commercial Re-Supply, the the EELV program for the Air Force. These capabilities have really enabled, or these, I should say, business models have enabled innovation: where you've got providers competing on innovation and on cost. So because of these capabilities, we have more access to space than ever before and reusability of rockets is a big piece of that. Well, we want the entire architecture between the Earth and the moon to be reusable. So we want reusable launch. We want reusable tugs between Earth orbit and lunar orbit. And we want the Gateway to be in that Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit where it requires very little propulsion to maintain that orbit. We want to be there for a very long period o