Back to the future?

Looks amazingly similar to the Apollo technology, right?

Now I heard over the weekend that the goal year was 2018... See this release from NASA.

QUOTE(NASA release)

In just five years, the new ship will begin to ferry crew and supplies to the International Space Station. Plans call for as many as six trips to the outpost a year. In the meantime, robotic missions will lay the groundwork for lunar exploration. In 2018, humans will return to the moon

The image below is their new launch vehicle:


Their main page, nasa.gov, points to a flash presentation on the new vehicle, which purportely combines the best parts of the Apollo & Shuttle programs.

I for one would consider it amazing if NASA got this new launch vehicle going in five years. One has to wonder what type of urgency it has with the recent re-grounding of the remaining active shuttle fleet (Discovery, Atlantis & Endeavor -- Enterprise never had engines and now resides at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport). The shuttle fleet was 60s-70s technology, and was due for a major overhaul. The new system, whether intentional or not, appears heavily based on the old Saturn 5 rocket of the 60s.

At this point, one has to think the shuttle program is all but dead. With the cost, if they want the new platform up and running by 2010, that doesn't leave much for the shuttle program itself. NASA's Return to Flight webpage has Discovery, which just returned from STS-114, flying as STS-121 in the next shuttle flight with a 6-man crew. It does not give a timetable, only tentatively labeled as March 2006, but at least indicates some intent to keep the program, even if only minimally, until the new vehicle is ready. At the rate they are going, we're probably talking 8 or 9 total shuttle launches at this two-a-year pate.

At the end of the Return to Flight article is this snippet, explaining the change in orbiter for STS-121:

QUOTE(NASA Return to Flight)

Discovery will be used for STS-121 instead of Atlantis, putting NASA in a better position for future missions to the Space Station. Atlantis will fly the following mission, STS-115, carrying Space Station truss segments which are too heavy to be carried by Discovery. By changing the lineup, the program won't have to fly back to back missions with Atlantis, as was previously scheduled.

I have to think the grounding of the program allowed this change to be made, as that greatly increased the amount of scheduled time between STS-114 & STS-121.

Another source for information on the new launch vehicle is this exetended article over on space.com