On 22 April 2026, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told Congress that both habitable Lunar Gateway modules had been found corroded: HALO, the Habitation and Logistics Outpost, and I-HAB, the International Habitation Module. HALO was built by Thales Alenia Space in Turin and delivered to the United States in April 2025 for outfitting; I-HAB was built by ESA with Japanese JAXA contributions. The corrosion disclosure was reported publicly on 23 April 2026.
The technical issue is not cosmetic: both modules are pressurized living volumes, so corrosion in primary structure threatens leak margin, structural integrity, certification timing, and crew safety. Public reporting indicates investigators linked the problem to a combination of forging, surface-treatment, and material-property factors, while Northrop Grumman and ESA said the issue was being worked and was technically manageable; however, the schedule impact was severe enough that later reporting described major delays and delivery slips into 2028 and beyond.
For the Ark team, the key lesson is that lunar habitation systems must assume corrosion can emerge after fabrication, during storage, transport, and integration, not only during flight. Monitor alloy selection, surface treatment, humidity and contamination controls, long-duration ground storage, and inspection regimes for every pressure vessel; integrate conservative non-destructive evaluation, corrosion coupons, and repair pathways into all lunar habitat designs before human occupancy.
A survivable Moon base must treat corrosion control as mission-critical life support infrastructure, not a manufacturing detail.