NASA Renames New Exploration Vehicles

NASA announced its new names for the next generation of its human space exploration program, which will return astronauts to the surface of the Moon. The crew vehicle is named Ares I, and the cargo launcher is now named Ares V. The Ares I will carry just the crew exploration vehicle and astronauts into orbit, while the much larger Ares V will carry the cargo and equipment. Once in orbit, the crew exploration vehicle will link up with the cargo to travel on to the Moon.

NASA announced on Friday the names of the next generation of launch vehicles that will return humans to the moon and later take them to Mars and other destinations. The crew launch vehicle will be called Ares I, and the cargo launch vehicle will be known as Ares V.

“It’s appropriate that we named these vehicles Ares, which is a pseudonym for Mars,” said Scott Horowitz, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Washington. “We honor the past with the number designations and salute the future with a name that resonates with NASA’s exploration mission.”

The “I and V” designations pay homage to the Apollo program’s Saturn I and Saturn V rockets, the first large U.S. space vehicles conceived and developed specifically for human spaceflight.

The crew exploration vehicle, which will succeed the space shuttle as NASA’s spacecraft for human space exploration, will be named later. This vehicle will be carried into space by Ares I, which uses a single five-segment solid rocket booster, a derivative of the space shuttle’s solid rocket booster, for the first stage. A liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen J-2X engine derived from the J-2 engine used on Apollo’s second stage will power the crew exploration vehicle’s second stage. The Ares I can lift more than 55,000 pounds to low Earth orbit.

Ares V, a heavy lift launch vehicle, will use five RS-68 liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engines mounted below a larger version of the space shuttle’s external tank, and two five-segment solid propellant rocket boosters for the first stage. The upper stage will use the same J-2X engine as the Ares I. The Ares V can lift more than 286,000 pounds to low Earth orbit and stands approximately 360 feet tall. This versatile system will be used to carry cargo and the components into orbit needed to go to the moon and later to Mars.

Original Source: NASA News Release