NASA Assigns Roles to Its Field Centers for Ares 5, Lunar Lander

摘要

NASA's 10 regional field centers learned Oct. 30 the roles they will play in developing the Ares 5 heavy-lift rocket, lunar lander and other hardware the United States needs to send humans to the Moon toward the end of the next decade. The biggest roles were assigned to NASA's larger field centers, with lead responsibility for designing the lunar lander and other lunar surface systems, including rovers and astronaut habitats, going to Johnson Space Center in Houston. Development of the Ares 5 rocket and its Earth-departure stage will be led by Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Marshall also will lead development of the lunar descent stage for the lunar lander.