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Game PlanIndustry proposals for the Crew Exploration Vehicle that NASA plans as a replacement for the space shuttle are due next week, but the agency's new chief says it might be necessary to slow the CEV procurement at first to speed it up later. After a quick trip to Kennedy Space Center for briefings on getting the space shuttle back in operation, Michael D. Griffin sat down with his growing staff last week to begin work on modifying the CEV procurement. "We are going to rethink our entire program in that area," he said during an inaugural press conference Apr. 18. The proposals due May 2 are being prepared in response to NASA's call for a "risk-reduction flight effort" in 2008 that would lead to delivery of a human-rated CEV in 2014. But Griffin was co-leader on an independent study in 2004 that recommended a way to get the CEV flying astronauts in 2010, the year President Bush has set as a deadline for retiring the space shuttle fleet. In that study, produced for The Planetary Society, Griffin and his team called for development of a 13-15-ton "Block 1" CEV limited to low Earth orbit (LEO) that would be launched atop a single space shuttle solid rocket motor (SRM), with a new cryogenic upper stage based on existing rocket engine technology, Under this approach, NASA would develop a "Block 2" CEV later for human exploration beyond LEO.
Document ID
20050166895
Acquisition Source
Headquarters
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Morring, Frank, Jr.
(NASA Headquarters Washington, DC United States)
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
April 25, 2005
Publication Information
Publication: Aviation Week and Space Technology
Volume: 162
Issue: 17
ISSN: 0005-2175
Subject Category
Astronautics (General)
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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