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NASA is delaying its selection of a Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) prime contractor and has issued the competing consortiums with more changes to CEV requirements. Conceptual mission architecture trade studies including launch vehicle work are now the responsibility of NASA and the industry teams are to focus on technology analyses for most of the CEV’s systems. The two consortiums are led by Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. The CEV consists of a capsule-shaped crew module and a solar-powered service module. NASA has told the consortiums it will provide the crew module’s liquid oxygen/methane engines, heat shield and parachute system. An...

As NASA prepares to once again send humans to the surface of the Moon, Russia is also developing its own plans for future manned spaceflight. The country's Clipper project to develop a six-person spacecraft to deliver astronauts into Earth orbit, and potentially beyond, appears in some ways to be the Russian Federal Space Agency's answer to NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). "We're starting to design this new transportation system to support the International Space Station (ISS) once it's complete," said Nikolay Sevastiyanov, president of the Russian aerospace contractor RSC-Energia, during a recent space conference where the program was discussed. The...

November 3, 2005 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. 2318 Rayburn House Office Building Purpose On Thursday, November 3, 2005 at 10:00 a.m., the Committee on Science will hold a hearing to review the status of plans and programs of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA Administrator Michael Griffin will provide a comprehensive update on all facets of NASA's plans and programs. When Administrator Griffin last testified before the Committee four months ago, on June 28th, he described several reviews he had recently initiated, including: - the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) to define NASA's plans for returning to...

As plans are announced for the possible successor to the space shuttle, area supporters are stepping up efforts to ensure that this spacecraft shares the same birthplace as the soon-to-be-retired orbiters. NASA has announced plans for a new system for manned space travel to take the place of the space shuttles, set to end their service in 2010. The same criteria that brought development of the space shuttles to the Antelope Valley - all five space orbiters and their prototype were built at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale - remain viable reasons for that craft's successor to be built...

Monday, October 3, 2005 NASA Propulsion Strategy Reaches Back While Looking Ahead By Brian Berger Space News Staff Writer The initial propulsion work in support of NASA's bid to return to the Moon and go on to Mars will focus primarily on adapting space shuttle systems and developing methane-fueled engines, a technology with which the United States has little experience. The space shuttle main engine and solid rocket boosters are the basis for two new launchers NASA intends to develop, one for lofting an astronaut-carrying capsule known as the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), and a heavy lifter for Moon-bound cargo...

WASHINGTON – NASA briefed senior White House officials Wednesday on its plan to spend $100 billion and the next 12 years building the spacecraft and rockets it needs to put humans back on the Moon by 2018. The U.S. space agency now expects to roll out its lunar exploration plan to key Congressional committees on Friday and to the broader public through a news conference on Monday, Washington sources tell SPACE.com. U.S. President George W. Bush called in January 2004 for the United States to return to the Moon by 2020 as the first major step in a broader space...

El Segundo, CA – September 8, 2005 – SpaceX today announced its new launch vehicle, the Falcon 9, an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) class vehicle. With up to a 17 ft (5.2 m) diameter fairing, Falcon 9 is capable of launching approximately 21,000 lbs (9,500 kg) to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in its medium configuration and 55,000 lbs (25,000 kg) to LEO in its heavy configuration, a lift capacity greater than any other launch vehicle. In the medium configuration, Falcon 9 is priced at $27 million per flight with a 12 ft (3.6 m) fairing and $35 million with...

Last Chapter Opens For Space Shuttle Born Of Compromise By Brian Berger, Space News, August 15, 2005 Space Shuttle Discovery’s return-to-flight mission marks the beginning of the end for a program whose design evolution exemplifies the pitfalls NASA is seeking to avoid as it embarks on a new direction in space exploration. Thirty-five years ago, when NASA was struggling to make the case for a new space transportation system, it promised to build a reusable vehicle that would haul all of the nation’s civil, military and even commercial satellites into orbit and eventually help construct a space station. The melding...

CAPE CANAVERAL -- All eyes here are on shuttle Discovery's scheduled landing this morning, but in reality NASA considers the fleet of shuttles to be outmoded flying cargo trucks soon destined for mothballs. The agency is increasingly turning its full focus to the goal that truly drives it: placing humans on Mars. This week the National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, an unmanned satellite-like probe that will study the red planet for signs of past life and of existing water supplies -- as well as potential landing spots for manned missions. Meanwhile, NASA officials...

NASA is considering retiring a Space Shuttle orbiter in 2007 and beginning modifications to one Shuttle launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center under a plan now being reviewed at NASA headquarters, according to senior agency sources. Driving the idea of a phased retirement of the space vehicles are two concerns. The first is a desire for finding new sources of funds to pay for advancement of the President's moon-to-Mars plan. And secondly NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin's fears of a third Shuttle accident. A source familiar with Griffin's thinking said he is worried that an age-related malfunction would trigger...

Even as NASA prepares to return to space with the space shuttle, efforts are under way to ensure the agency's next manned spacecraft will share the same California birthplace. Each of the five space shuttle orbiters and one test vehicle were built at the Rockwell International - now The Boeing Co. - facility at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale. Now, NASA has awarded contracts to two teams in a competition to develop and build a replacement spacecraft, the crew exploration vehicle. Both teams, one headed by Lockheed Martin and the other a joint project of Northrop Grumman Corp. and...

Griffin Favors Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster for Launching CEV NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said Monday that he favors launching the proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) on a single solid rocket booster based on the ones that for the past two decades have helped lift the space shuttle off the launch pad. The so-called single stick approach, which refers to the use of a single solid rocket booster, has been touted by solid rocket maker ATK Thiokol as the safest and simplest solution to launching the CEV. The solid rocket would require an upper stage engine. Boeing and Lockheed Martin, meanwhile,...

Two teams, one led by Lockheed Martin Corp. and the other by the pairing of Northrop Grumman Corp. and The Boeing Co., will compete to build the nation's next manned spacecraft, NASA announced Tuesday. The agency's requirements for the spacecraft, known as the crew exploration vehicle, or CEV, have yet to be precisely defined, however, as the program itself undergoes a re-evaluation in order to hasten its operational capability. The vehicle is envisioned as the centerpiece of NASA's plans for manned spaceflight, returning to the moon and eventually traveling to Mars and beyond. The two teams were chosen based on...

Visitors to the Paris Air Show are being treated to a full-scale mockup of Russia’s proposed Kliper spaceliner. The multi-use vehicle is one piece of Russia’s Rosaviakosmos display at the Pairs Air Show now underway until June 19. Rosaviakosmos is Russia’s Federal Space Agency, with the Kliper design a product of that country’s Energia Rocket and Space Corporation. The exhibit includes a look inside the Kliper (or Clipper in English), showing the placement of passengers behind a flight crew. Russia is touting the spacecraft as a replacement for their workhorse spacecraft, the Soyuz. Much like NASA’s Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV),...

Cape Canaveral (UPI) Private companies looking to NASA to finance development of new launch vehicles to carry passenger ships to space might want to re-consider, because the leading contender for carrying the space agency's new Crew Exploration Vehicle to orbit already exists. "I already have a heavy-lift vehicle," NASA administrator Michael Griffin told reporters at an informal briefing last week at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA has not ruled out expendable launch vehicles built by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, nor new boosters in the making, such as Space Exploration Technology's Falcon 5, but Griffin clearly favors using components of the...

The surprise appointment of Mike Griffin to be the NASA Administrator has produced the equivalent of an earthquake inside NASA, the space industry, and the larger space community. His desire to speed up the design and development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and the fact that he raised the possibility of flying the Hubble servicing mission and of reengaging NASA in hypersonic flight research by continuing to fund work on the X-43C program has delighted any number of space advocates, inside and outside the government. The choice of the CEV design and mission architecture that will take Americans back...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's new boss made an impassioned case Thursday for speeding up development of a new spacecraft so that the United States will not lose access to space when the shuttle is retired, but warned something else will have to be sacrificed. ADVERTISEMENT Administrator Michael Griffin told a Senate subcommittee in Washington that to cover the cost of the shuttle replacement's accelerated debut, he may be forced to delay some space station and exploration research."We can't do everything on our plate, and we have to have priorities and first things first," he said.Griffin wants to fly the...

Less than a month after taking the job, NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin is pushing an ambitious but risky plan to shave four years off the timetable for building a next-generation spaceship to replace the space shuttle, and wants to launch it with a crew by the end of 2010. The shuttle has not flown since the Columbia tragedy in February 2003, and even after safety modifications are completed and flights resume, the orbiter will not be able to get beyond "low Earth orbit" and will become obsolete as soon as construction of the international space station is completed in...

WASHINGTON – The Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee said today that he would push for swift confirmation of NASA Administrator nominee Mike Griffin with the intent of clearing him to report for duty Monday April 18. Griffin said during his confirmation hearing before the Commerce Committee this morning that his two top priorities would be safe return to flight of the space shuttle fleet and eliminating the lengthy gap between retiring the shuttle fleet in 2010 and fielding a replacement vehicle, the Crew Exploration Vehicle now scheduled for its initial piloted launch in 2014. Griffin also said he would...

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida -- The future of human space transportation, not only into Earth orbit, but also back to the Moon and onto Mars, kick-started this week as NASA received contractor proposals for the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). A glimpse into one concept -- provided by Lockheed Martin Space Systems near Denver, Colorado – shows a lifting body craft that can be outfitted for lunar as well as Mars operations. “Basically what we came down on was the side of safety for the crew in making our decision to go with a lifting body,” said Patrick McKenzie, CEV Business...