NASA Names New Rockets, Saluting the Future, Honoring the Past

June 30, 2006

Dolores Beasley/Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1753/1979

RELEASE: 06-270

NASA NAMES NEW ROCKETS, SALUTING THE FUTURE, HONORING THE PAST

NASA announced on Friday the names of the next generation of launch
vehicles that will return humans to the moon and later take them to
Mars and other destinations. The crew launch vehicle will be called
Ares I, and the cargo launch vehicle will be known as Ares V.

"It's appropriate that we named these vehicles Ares, which is a
pseudonym for Mars," said Scott Horowitz, associate administrator for
NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Washington. "We honor
the past with the number designations and salute the future with a
name that resonates with NASA's exploration mission."

The "I and V" designations pay homage to the Apollo program's Saturn I
and Saturn V rockets, the first large U.S. space vehicles conceived
and developed specifically for human spaceflight.

The crew exploration vehicle, which will succeed the space shuttle as
NASA's spacecraft for human space exploration, will be named later.
This vehicle will be carried into space by Ares I, which uses a
single five-segment solid rocket booster, a derivative of the space
shuttle's solid rocket booster, for the first stage. A liquid
oxygen/liquid hydrogen J-2X engine derived from the J-2 engine used
on Apollo's second stage will power the crew exploration vehicle's
second stage. The Ares I can lift more than 55,000 pounds to low
Earth orbit.

Ares V, a heavy lift launch vehicle, will use five RS-68 liquid
oxygen/liquid hydrogen engines mounted below a larger version of the
space shuttle's external tank, and two five-segment solid propellant
rocket boosters for the first stage. The upper stage will use the
same J-2X engine as the Ares I. The Ares V can lift more than 286,000
pounds to low Earth orbit and stands approximately 360 feet tall.
This versatile system will be used to carry cargo and the components
into orbit needed to go to the moon and later to Mars.

NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, manages the Constellation
Program and the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville,
Ala., manages the Exploration Launch Projects office for the
Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Washington.

For information about NASA's exploration efforts, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/home

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