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El astronauta vivía en la ciudad, pero pronto habitará la luna.

El astronauta vivía en la ciudad, pero pronto habitará la luna.
The astronaut used to live in the city, but soon he will inhabit the moon.
From Lesson 123:The regular future tense (-é, -ás, -á...)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El astronauta vivía en la ciudad, pero pronto habitará la luna.

How is the future tense formed in habitará?
It is the regular future tense! Instead of dropping the ending like we do for present or past tenses, you leave the whole infinitive verb (habitar) exactly as it is and add the future ending for he/she/it, which is -á. So, habitar + -á = habitará.
Why does it say vivía for "used to live"? Why not the past tense vivió?
The word vivía is in the imperfect tense. We use this tense for ongoing, descriptive past actions or habits, which is perfect for translating "used to live" or "was living". If we used vivió (the preterite tense), it would sound like a single completed event with a clear start and end.
The word astronauta ends in an "a". Why is the masculine "the" (el) used here?
Words ending in -auta (like astronauta) or -ista (like dentista) can be either masculine or feminine depending on the person they describe. Because it says el astronauta, we know this specific astronaut is a man. If it were a woman, it would be la astronauta.
Why is there no a (to) before la luna?
The verb habitar means "to inhabit", which is followed directly by the place being inhabited. Just like in English, you "inhabit the moon", you do not "inhabit to the moon". If the sentence used a verb of motion like viajar (to travel), you would need the a: viajará a la luna.

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