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| Artist's rendering of the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle on a deep space mission. |
NASA on Tuesday announced a plan to develop a new deep space vehicle, one based on an earlier capsule concept, in order to send astronauts on expeditions to an asteroid, and then on to Mars. The spaceship, known as the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), will be based on designs originally planned for the Orion spacecraft, NASA officials announced today (May 24). Orion was part of NASA's now-cancelled Constellation program, which aimed to return astronauts to the moon by the 2020s.
Lockheed Martin Corp., NASA's prime contractor for Orion, will continue work to develop the MPCV spacecraft, agency officials said. The spacecraft will carry four astronauts for three-week missions. The flights will end with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. The MPCV will have a pressurized volume of 690 cubic feet (20 cubic meters), with 316 cubic feet (9 cubic m) of habitable space, according to an official description.
The MPCV will launch aboard a new heavy-lift rocket that NASA is also developing, agency officials said. Last year, Congress instructed the agency to have the spaceship and the launch vehicle ready to go by 2016, though NASA has said recently that it will probably need more time.
"We are committed to human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and look forward to developing the next generation of systems to take us there," NASA adminstrator Charlie Bolden said in a statement. Space.com
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