Wednesday, May 25, 2011

How the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Stacks Up

With the last flight of the Space Shuttle program scheduled for this July, NASA has officially announced its next crewed vehicle, the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV). While the name may not be as inspiring, the MPCV's design is derived from the Orion capsule, which was part of the now canceled Constellation program. The MPCV is being designed as a deep space exploration vehicle, capable of taking humans to lunar orbit, to near-Earth asteroids, or to the moons of Mars.

So how does the MPCV stack up against the other spacecraft past and present? Here's an infographic from SPACE.com that breaks it down:

See how NASA's new Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, based on the Orion capsule, stacks up against other crewed spaceships in this SPACE.com infographic.
Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

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