NASA Refines Design For Crew Exploration Vehicle

NASA - NASA Refines Design For Crew Exploration Vehicle: "NASA's Constellation Program is making progress toward selecting a prime contractor to design, develop and build the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), America's first new human spacecraft in 30 years.

The agency has issued Phase II of a Request for Proposals. It is a 'Call for Improvements' that incorporates the results of additional analysis and study. Phase II adds detailed design, development and production requirements. Phase II proposals will be evaluated and used to select a single CEV contractor later this year."

Looking this over in detail, it appears NASA has dropped the requirement for the CEV to use LOX/Methane fuel (which could be synthesized from local resources on the Moon and Mars) as well as the immediate development of a cargo-carrying variant. I'd guess this was done to speed up the process so we can get the CEV flying as soon as possible after Shuttle retirement in 2010. That's OK by me. - RR