NASA's New Vehicle

Last week, NASA unveiled its new Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV).  A redesign of the Orion capsule (which was originally planned to take astronauts to the Moon), the MPCV is slated to ferry up to four astronauts on longer missions to near-Earth asteroids and eventually Mars.  While many details, such as what type of habitation module would accompany these flights and on what rocket it will launch, have yet to be determined, this is certainly a step in the right direction for NASA.

Since Obama's scrapping of the Constellation Program, which aimed to return humans to the Moon in the next decade, NASA has struggled to define its manned exploration goals to the public.  The announcement of the MPCV finally puts a face on their new mission to send humans further into interplanetary space.  By next year, China and Russia will be the only two nations capable of putting humans into orbit, and it's important that NASA at least appear to have a concrete plan for the future of our manned space program.

Using the Orion capsule as the template for the MPCV is a smart move.  Not only is it cheaper and faster to re-tool a vehicle that has already been designed, but terminating the contract with Orion's designer, Lockheed Martin, certainly would have meant layoffs, which wouldn't be attractive in anyone's eyes.  And like Orion, the MPCV will retain the ability to dock with the International Space Station, should the need arise.

While the road ahead for the MPCV still has many uncertainties, as even a potential launch date hasn't been set, this is a good step for NASA and for manned space exploration.

Read more here. And here.