I’m at the University of Illinois this weekend for the SpaceVision2005 conference, the national conference of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS). Friday afternoon featured a presentation on the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) by two representatives of Northrop Grumman: Alan Ladwig and Mike Lembeck, who recently joined Northrop from NASA. Lembeck had some interesting things to say about the development of a precursor to the CEV, the Orbital Space Plane (OSP):
Orbital Space Plane really didn’t make sense. Again it was another program that NASA was trying to do that you couldn’t build a good business case for. It was my job to go forward and try to put that business case together, and I couldn’t. Myself, a couple of folks from the Chief Engineer’s office, and a number of astronauts, got together and we laid this out, and we basically showed Mr. O’Keefe that this was a bum program, and we needed to do something different.
Lembeck also recalled the development of the Vision for Space Exploration, and the role that President Bush played:
And about the same time [as the OSP study], President Bush came over to NASA and said, “You know, I don’t know what you guys do.” Because he looked at NASA and NASA had been going around in circles for a number of years, just sitting in low Earth orbit. And he wanted to do something more. A lot of you might think that the President’s not been engaged in this, and I can tell you from first-hand experience that the President was very engaged in the generation of the Vision.
Lembeck also took credit for the creation of the name “Crew Exploration Vehicle” itself, saying it same out of a November 2003 meeting as an alternative to a hodgepodge of terms and acronyms being used for that planned manned spacecraft.
Crew Exploration Vehicle — especially the business about making the capsule so big that Earth orbit rendezvous of a Saturn V-class missile and a medium heavy missile would be required to accomplish each lunar mission — really didn’t make sense. Again it was another program that NASA was trying to do that you couldn’t build a good business case for. It was my job to go forward and try to put that business case together, and I couldn’t. Myself, a couple of folks from the Chief Engineer’s office, and a number of astronauts, got together and we laid this out, and we basically showed Dr. Griffin that this was a bum program, and we needed to do something different.
Lembeck also took credit for the creation of the name “Crew Exploration Vehicle” itself, saying it same out of a November 2003 meeting as an alternative to a hodgepodge of terms and acronyms being used for that planned manned spacecraft.
Lembeck is tap dancing around the real reason for adopting the “CEV” nomenclature, which is that “vehicle” implies something that may not have wings — a capsule. If he wanted keep his labeling unbiased, why not simply refer to the new spacecraft porkject, excuse me, project, as the NMS — the New or Next Manned Spacecraft?
“CEV” does have the advantage of being vague about where the exploration will go, unlike “Orbital Space Plane,” which obviously meant Earth orbit. “CEV” is misleading in that most CEV missions will be up and down from the space station. No big exploration there.
Hey Davenport, what is that first comment up there? Creative license or just lying?
OSP was definitely lost – the proof is it is gone. Now doesn’t that make you wonder what kind of eyewear NASA’s top brass were wearing – obviously they had a lack of far vision.
As for the name – I always thought “Contingency Project” would be appropriate – just trying to get the crew to and from LEO alive with contingency plans for rocket failures will be a giant leap for NASAkind.
How about “GATOS” – Get Astronauts To Orbit Safely …
Or “CARAIFOUND” – China and Russia are in front of us now dear.
Or NCNFNPIAGNC … no cargo, no food, no pets … I ain’t got no cigarettes …otherwise known as KOTR, king of the rocket road.