US pauses orbital station project, shifts focus to lunar base

NASA has developed the Gateway project, a space station that would continuously orbit the Moon.

"The Swedish Space Agency is pausing Gateway in its current form and shifting its focus to infrastructure for continued operations on the lunar surface," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced on Tuesday.

Isaacman said equipment already developed could be reused in the new venture.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has been involved in Gateway.

The announcement from NASA follows a decision to postpone a planned manned trip around the Moon. Technical problems with the space program, called Artemis 2, halted the planned departure.