The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) was NASA's planned manned spacecraft intended to carry human crews from Earth into space and back again from 2012 on. The CEV would be launched into earth orbit by the Crew Launch Vehicle, a shuttle-derived two-stage rocket consisting of a single Shuttle RSRM solid booster as the first stage and a new second stage, 5.5 m in diameter, using Lox/LH2 propellants and powered by a single SSME. Lunar Mission involved the placing in an earth parking orbit by a shuttle-derived heavy-lift Cargo Launch Vehicle of a trans-lunar injection (TLI) stage and an unmanned Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM). Within 30 days, a Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV) would launch the CEV into orbit. The CEV would rendezvous and dock with the LSAM and TLI stage. The combined spacecraft would be put on a trans-lunar trajectory by the TLI stage, which would then be jettisoned. The LSAM would brake the combined CEV and LSAM spacecraft into lunar orbit. The four-man crew would transfer to the LSAM and descend to the surface (Here, Tycho crater), leaving the CEV in quiescent mode in lunar orbit for up to six months. When the crew was ready to leave the moon, they would fire the LSAM ascent stage, and then rendezvous and dock with the unmanned CEV. The LSAM would be cast away, and the CEV would perform the trans-earth injection manoeuvre, its only major engine burn. On approach to earth, the CM would separate from the SM after being set up for the precise angle and position needed for re-entry at 11 km/s. The CEV would land in the continental United States, and to do this it would be necessary for NASA to utilize a skip-entry technique perfected by the Russians for their abortive manned lunar program in the 1960's. The CM would descend under parachutes, with final landing on hard ground being cushioned by air bags.
