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NASA planning moon launch for 2018
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-20 06:57
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said the nation can fight the war
on terror and deal with a disaster like Katrina while developing space
technology for the future. "It is expensive, but at the same time it's
incredibly important because the return to the people of the United States and
the world is also very important," DeLay said.
The new space vehicle design uses shuttle rocket parts, an Apollo-style
capsule and a lander capable of carrying four people to the moon. The rockets —
there would be two, a small version for people and a heftier one for cargo —
would eclipse the 18-story space shuttle. The larger one, in fact, would come
close to the 36-story Saturn 5 moon rocket.
They would be built from shuttle booster rockets, fuel tanks and main
engines, as well as moon rocket engines. The so-called crew exploration vehicle
perched on top would look very much like an Apollo capsule, albeit larger.
The crew exploration vehicle would replace the space shuttle, due to be
retired in 2010, but not before 2012 and possibly as late as 2014 depending on
the money available, Griffin said. It could carry as many as six astronauts back
and forth to the international space station.
If all goes well, the first crew would set off for the moon by 2018 — or 2020
at the latest, the year targeted by President Bush who proposed such an
initiative last year. The same type of vessel could be used, one day, to
transport astronauts to Mars.
House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., praised NASA for
coming up with what appears to be "the safest, least expensive and most
efficient way" of moving forward in space exploration. The only way to
accelerate all this would be to spend more money, he said.
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