On January 14th, 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush gave an historic speech at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC: "Today I announce a new plan to explore space and extend a human presence across our solar system. We will begin the effort quickly, using existing programs and personnel. We'll make steady progress -- one mission, one voyage, one landing at a time."

Bush announced that the first goal will be to return the Space Shuttle to flight safely, and consistent with the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Once construction of the International Space Station (ISS) is complete, the Space Shuttle will be retired by 2010 to make way for a new spacecraft, the construction of which will transform America into a truly spacefaring nation.

"Our second goal," Bush went on, "is to develop and test a new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, by 2008, and to conduct the first manned mission no later than 2014. The Crew Exploration Vehicle will be capable of ferrying astronauts and scientists to the Space Station after the shuttle is retired. But the main purpose of this spacecraft will be to carry astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds. This will be the first spacecraft of its kind since the Apollo Command Module."

The program to build the "Crew Exploration Vehicle" or CEV is now called "Project Constellation". It will do much more than simply to develop a single new vehicle. NASA will utilize a spiral development model to create variants of the CEV which can travel to earth orbit, to lunar orbit, to help conduct lunar landings, to build extended duration habitats, and to destinations beyond, such as Mars, near-earth asteroids, and the outer planets.

Thus, the development of the CEV represents the most significant new research into manned spacecraft since the mid-1960s. It will inherit the legacy and most likely the shape of the Apollo Command Module, but will benefit from almost 40 years of technological advances.

While it is still early in the development of the CEV hardware, some of the concepts that may be adopted have already begun to emerge. Overall, a modular design is being touted in order for new capabilities to be added and to allow future launch vehicles designs to be easily swapped out. Another detail is that a capsule-shaped design is being favored. Other wing-shaped designs have not been ruled out yet, but many observers of the project, including the very astronauts that will ride the vehicle, are strongly in favor of the capsule shape due to its proven flightworthiness during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.

Aside from the crew module itself, other modules are being designed to enable extended stays in space. Included in a series of graphic mockups released by Boeing is an inflatable habitat module, which many have already compared to a past NASA effort to develop an inflatable habitat for ISS, and as part of an interplanetary vehicle for future voyages to Mars.

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The images that you will see on this page are my own concept for the CEV. This will also be the start of a new series by me showing ideas for returning man to the moon and establishing a permanent presence and as a staging area for future man fights to Mars and beyond.

David Robinson