National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Administrator Michael Griffin rolled out NASA's plan for the future Monday, including new details about the spaceship intended to replace the shuttle and a timeline for returning astronauts to the moon in 2018. The design for the new crew exploration vehicle (CEV) looks a lot like the Apollo-era spaceship that first took NASA to the moon a generation ago. It is a similarity that is not lost on Griffin. "Think of it as Apollo on steroids," he told reporters at NASA headquarters in Washington. Under the new NASA plan, a "moon shot" would actually require two launches, both using rockets derived from shuttle launch hardware. One unmanned, heavy-lift rocket would transport a lunar lander plus supplies and other equipment to low-Earth orbit. Afterward, a second rocket would carry a crew capsule capable of transporting up to six astronauts into a similar orbit. The two would dock with each other, and then head to the moon, according to a report of CNN. The first few missions are planned to put four astronauts on the surface of the moon for a week, while the unoccupied mothership orbits overhead. Once back in the crew capsule, the astronauts would return to Earth, with the capsule parachuting to a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in the California desert. Griffin said the total cost of the program spread out over 13 years will be $104 billion in 2005. "Unless the United States wants to get out of the manned space flight business completely, then this is the vehicle we need to be building," he said. "And I don't hear anyone saying that the United States would be better off being out of space, when other nations are there."
