{"id":388235,"date":"2026-04-20T04:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T04:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/388235\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T04:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T04:55:11","slug":"japan-to-focus-on-lunar-rover-after-us-halts-moon-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/388235\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan to focus on lunar rover after US halts moon space station"},"content":{"rendered":"

A US move to freeze the Lunar Gateway orbiting space station could render Japan<\/a>\u2019s new technologies redundant \u2013 but its space agency is expected to be diplomatic in its response.The gateway project was initially planned as an installation that would orbit the moon as part of the United States<\/a>\u2019 Artemis programme, which recently made headlines for a record-breaking journey<\/a> that went deeper into space than anyone had ever flown before.<\/p>\n

Artemis\u2019 aim is to return astronauts to the moon\u2019s surface for the first time since 1972, with the space station a key element of the project.<\/p>\n

Questions were raised about the project in May last year, when the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) expressed concern over escalating costs, commercial alternatives and shifting priorities.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, US$2.6 billion of funding over two years was earmarked for the project last July under President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.\"AstronautsAstronauts greet recovery personnel inside the Artemis II crew capsule floating in the Pacific Ocean following splashdown on April 10. Photo: Instagram\/Astro_Reid\/ReutersOn March 24, however, Nasa<\/a> announced it was freezing the project to focus on the construction of a base on the surface of the moon, with future manned missions to Mars in mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A US move to freeze the Lunar Gateway orbiting space station could render Japan\u2019s new technologies redundant \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6282,275,4225,2024,13559,79828,201025,15869,22041,6248,8036,3323,111,139,69,201024,145,1733,3040],"class_list":{"0":"post-388235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-artemis","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-dubai","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-international-space-station","13":"tag-japan-aerospace-exploration-agency","14":"tag-japanese-government","15":"tag-jaxa","16":"tag-lunar-gateway","17":"tag-mars","18":"tag-moon","19":"tag-nasa","20":"tag-new-zealand","21":"tag-newzealand","22":"tag-nz","23":"tag-office-of-management-and-budget","24":"tag-technology","25":"tag-toyota","26":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}