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They appear to be going the capsule route and are going to recycle as much shuttle based harsware as possible.
Major features of the new manned program;
* There will be 2 versions of the Crew Exploration Vehicle; a 3 person model for ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS and a 4 person model for longer flights including lunar and Mars missions. Both would be Apollo-style capsules, but this does not mean small. Rumor is that the 4 person CEV could be as large as 25 tons.
* An unmanned version of the CEV would be used as a cargo carrier, conducting 3 ISS resupply flights a year.
* The CEV would launch atop a booster whose design is virtually the same as the shuttle SRB's. The second stage would be based either on either a shuttle main engine or the Saturn V's J2 upper stage engine.
* CEV's would be equipped with escape rockets much like those used with Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. These could get the CEV and its crew out of danger very quickly in the case of a booster malfunction.
* A new heavy-lift booster will be capable of launching 100 metric tons into orbit, but its capacity could evolve to 120 metric tons for lunar and Mars missions. This would likely consist of a modded shuttle external tank, two or more shuttle SRB's and up to 5 shuttle main engines. It would be as large as the Saturn V.
Most of this looks very similar to what was recommended by the Astronaut Corps, so it sounds like the new NASA administration is actually listening for a change.
Look for the decisions to be finalized later this month.
While this is going on Scaled Compsites is using SpaceShipOne's White Knight launch plane to test NASA's X-37 space plane for DARPA. They've already started a series of captive carry flights and are scheduled to start drop tests once those are concluded.
Dr. Mordrid
Major features of the new manned program;
* There will be 2 versions of the Crew Exploration Vehicle; a 3 person model for ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS and a 4 person model for longer flights including lunar and Mars missions. Both would be Apollo-style capsules, but this does not mean small. Rumor is that the 4 person CEV could be as large as 25 tons.
* An unmanned version of the CEV would be used as a cargo carrier, conducting 3 ISS resupply flights a year.
* The CEV would launch atop a booster whose design is virtually the same as the shuttle SRB's. The second stage would be based either on either a shuttle main engine or the Saturn V's J2 upper stage engine.
* CEV's would be equipped with escape rockets much like those used with Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. These could get the CEV and its crew out of danger very quickly in the case of a booster malfunction.
* A new heavy-lift booster will be capable of launching 100 metric tons into orbit, but its capacity could evolve to 120 metric tons for lunar and Mars missions. This would likely consist of a modded shuttle external tank, two or more shuttle SRB's and up to 5 shuttle main engines. It would be as large as the Saturn V.
Most of this looks very similar to what was recommended by the Astronaut Corps, so it sounds like the new NASA administration is actually listening for a change.
Look for the decisions to be finalized later this month.
While this is going on Scaled Compsites is using SpaceShipOne's White Knight launch plane to test NASA's X-37 space plane for DARPA. They've already started a series of captive carry flights and are scheduled to start drop tests once those are concluded.
The X-37 project is exploring commercial and military reusable space vehicle market applications, be they on-orbit satellite repair to the next-generation of totally reusable launch vehicles.
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