WASHINGTON, Sept 19: Nasa on Monday unveiled a $104 billion plan to return Americans to the moon by 2018 aboard a capsule-like vehicle the space agency’s chief described as ‘Apollo on steroids’.
Like the Apollo program that carried the first humans to the moon in 1969, the new system would put crew members into a capsule sitting atop a rocket, and would have a separate heavy-lift vehicle to take only cargo into orbit.
“It is very Apollo-like ... but bigger,” NASA chief Michael Griffin said at a briefing. “Think Apollo on steroids.” The capsule’s base would be considerably larger than Apollo’s.—Reuters
