Below The Beltway

It looks like NASA is serious about returning America to the Moon, and when we go there, it will be under the name Project Orion:

Thirty-seven years ago today, Project Apollo put the first humans on the surface of the Moon. The next time the U.S. launches its astronauts to Earth’s natural satellite, they will do so as part of Project Orion, collectSPACE.com has learned.

NASA intends to use the moniker Orion as both the title for its next generation manned craft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), and as the project?s name. This approach is modeled after the 1960’s program when Apollo Command Modules launched astronauts under Project Apollo.

Under Project Orion, NASA would launch crews of four astronauts aboard Orion capsules, first to Earth orbit and the International Space Station and then later to the Moon.

Two teams, one led by Lockheed Martin and the other a joint effort by Northrop Grumman and The Boeing Co., are currently competing to build the CEV. NASA is expected to select the winner in September.

While NASA is not confirming the new name for the project, there is one piece of evidence that seems to confirm that it is, in fact, Orion:

[A] publicly-accessible federal trademark search shows that NASA was granted the use of Orion on July 14, 2006 for use with “command modules” and “crew capsules”, as well as crew and cargo launch vehicles.

Sources close to the agency confirmed to collectSPACE that the name Orion was in the final stages of approval.

There is a certain back-to-the-future quality to all of this. After all, we were going to the Moon in the 1960s and 70s, but if this is more than just a show to upstage the Russians, which is part of what Apollo was all about, then it will hopefully be a step forward for a space program that has been treading water for twenty years.