The Constellation Program was NASA's planned future human spaceflight program between 2005 and 2009, which aimed to develop a new crewed spacecraft (Orion) and a pair of launchers (Ares I and Ares V) to continue servicing the International Space Station and return to the Moon.
As of 2009, a single uncrewed suborbital launch test (Ares I-X) had been flown, with crewed missions anticipated to begin between 2014 (when an uncrewed mission was indeed launched) and 2017-2019 (according to the independent Augustine Commission). On February 1, 2010, President Obama announced that he intended to cancel the program with the U.S. 2011 fiscal year budget. A revised proposal in April confirmed that the Orion spacecraft would be retained for future mission beyond low Earth orbit, with the Ares launchers redeveloped into the Space Launch System. However, the Constellation Program itself was cancelled, with low Earth orbit operations transferred to the Commercial Crew Development program, which itself would not begin crewed launches until Crew Dragon Demo-2 in 2020.
In October 2006 NASA released a draft schedule of all planned NASA Constellation missions through 2019.[1][2] This document included descriptions of a series of proposed vehicle test missions. In July 2007 the schedule was reviewed.[3] In January 2008 the schedule was again reviewed.[4][5] The most recent published set of milestones is from February 2009.[6] Also, an independent assessment by the Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee in October 2009 found that under NASA's then-current plans and budget the Ares I would not be ready to launch until 2017-2019, with the Ares V not available until the late 2020s.
On October 11, 2010, the Constellation program was cancelled, ending development of the Altair, Ares I, and Ares V. The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle was renamed the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), to be launched on the Space Launch System[7] on 2021.
After cancellation, two of the original launches took place anyway.
Test launches | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Order | Date | Year | Mission | Launch Vehicle | Duration | Crew Size | Launch Pad | Note |
1 | October 28 | 2009 | Ares I-X | Ares I-X | ~2 min. | Uncrewed | 39B | Atmospheric test of the first stage of the Ares I-X launcher with four active SRM segments and an inert fifth segment and upper stage. Program had already been cancelled by time of launch. |
3 | December 5 | 2014 | Exploration Flight Test 1 | Delta IV Heavy | 4 hours, 24 minutes | Uncrewed | SLC-37B | First flight of the Orion spacecraft, in an uncrewed orbital flight with a splashdown off California. |
Planned missions as of 2009 | ||||||||
2 | (never flown) | 2012 | Ares I-X Prime "Ares 1Y" | Ares I-X Prime "Ares 1Y" | ~8 min. | Uncrewed | 39B | Second sub-orbital Ares I-X test flight, consisting of a five segment booster with real upper stage and a dummy J-2 engine. High altitude abort. |
4 | (never flown) | 2015 | Orion 2 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | First crewed Orion test flight.[8] Includes demonstration of rendezvous and proximity operations with the ISS. First docking with the ISS. Landing at Edwards AFB. Leaves an adapter on the ISS. | |
5 | (never flown) | 2015 | Orion 3 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | Second crewed Orion test flight. Leaves a second adapter on the ISS. | |
6 | (never flown) | 2015 | Orion 4 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | ISS Crew Rotation Flight. First operational Orion flight. | |
7 | (never flown) | 2016 | Orion 5 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | ISS Crew Rotation Flight. | |
8 | (never flown) | 2016 | Orion 6 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | ISS Crew Rotation Flight. | |
9 | (never flown) | 2017 | Orion 7 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | ISS Crew Rotation Flight. | |
10 | (never flown) | 2017 | Orion 8 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | ISS Crew Rotation Flight. | |
11 | (never flown) | 2018 | Orion 9 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | ISS Crew Rotation Flight. | |
13 | (never flown) | 2018 | Ares V-Y | Ares V-Y | Uncrewed | 39A | Maiden flight of Ares V. | |
14 | (never flown) | 2018 | Orion 10 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | ISS Crew Rotation Flight. | |
15 | (never flown) | 2019 | Altair 1 | Ares V | Uncrewed | 39A | Maiden flight of Altair. Altair for Orion 11. | |
16 | (never flown) | 2019 | Orion 11 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | ||
17 | (never flown) | 2019 | Orion 12 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | ISS Crew Rotation Flight. | |
18 | (never flown) | 2019 | Altair 2 | Ares V | Uncrewed | 39A | Altair for Orion 13. | |
19 | (never flown) | 2019 | Orion 13 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | First Orion flight to the Moon. | |
20 | (never flown) | 2019 | Orion 14 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | ISS Crew Rotation Flight. | |
21 | (never flown) | 2020 | Altair 3 | Ares V | Uncrewed | 39A | Altair for Orion 15. | |
22 | (never flown) | 2020 | Orion 15 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | Flight to the Moon. | |
23 | (never flown) | 2020 | Orion 16 | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | SS Crew Rotation Flight. | |
24 | (never flown) | 2020 | Altair 4 | Ares V | Uncrewed | 39A | Direct lunar flight? | |
25 | (never flown) | 2020 | Orion 17[9] | Ares I | Crewed | 39B | SS Crew Rotation Flight. |
These were planned to test the launch escape system of the Orion spacecraft on the launchpad.[3]
Order | Date | Mission | Note |
---|---|---|---|
1 | May 6, 2010 | Pad Abort-1 | Used the former shape of the LAS adapter.
Also known as abort flight test (AFT). The full-scale Orion AFT crew module underwent preparations at Dryden Flight Research Center. [10] Orion Crew Module Pathfinder 'Test Article' fabricated at Langley Research Center. The PA-1 Test took place at U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.[11] The test slipped to "early 2010" from an originally planned date of late 2008.[12] In October 2009 Orbital Sciences indicated the test was scheduled for March 2010.[13] |