CACI Eyes Astronaut Training Opportunities for ‘Gateway’ Lunar Space Station; Ken Asbury Quoted

CACI International explores how their current virtual training methods, already utilized by the International Space Station’s training program, could also help prepare astronauts slated for Gateway, a proposed space station that will operate in the lunar orbit, Politico reported Friday.

”Any of the new NASA opportunities that are going to involve humans interacting with their spacecraft I think is an opportunity for us,” CACI CEO and 2019 Wash100 winner Ken Asbury said.

CACI is now training astronauts for future spacewalk missions, according to the report.

“It’s an immersive 3D simulation experience where you’re in a room with glasses on and all of a sudden you’re looking out the cupola of the space station,” Asbury said of the company’s video simulation training technology.

Gateway, projected to be fully constructed in 2026, is NASA’s planned spaceship with docking ports, research laboratories and living quarters. It will orbit the moon and will serve as an outpost for astronauts to stage lunar expeditions and other future missions to Mars.