NASA is going retro. The agency last week commissioned aerospace firm Lockheed Martin to build the space capsule for its crewed moon and Mars missions.
The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle bears a striking resemblance to the Apollo capsules that took America to the moon in the 1960s, with its conical crew pod and rocket-powered service module. The first crewed launch is planned for 2014, NASA says, with a moon landing no later than 2020. Orion will carry at least four crew members to the moon and Mars, and up to six on shorter missions to the International Space Station.
Commissioning…
