Congressman Wants Capsule-Shaped Replacement for Shuttle
By Jim Banke
Senior Producer,
Cape Canaveral Bureau
posted: 05:00 pm ET
16 January 2004

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Though a concrete vision of President Bush's plan for the United States to return humans to the Moon and then go on to Mars has yet be defined, U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) believes NASA should return to a capsule-shaped spacecraft design reminiscent of the Apollo command module.

"A ballistic capsule is the only thing that provides the kind of escape and safety features that are necessary to really protect the lives of the astronauts. It's also affordable," said Weldon, who represents Florida's Space Coast.

In Bush's initiative, unveiled Wednesday, a new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) was put forth as the replacement for the aging space shuttle. A CEV also would be used to send astronauts to the Moon between 2015 and 2020 .

Weldon said a capsule-shaped spacecraft, launched atop Delta 4 or Atlas 5 rockets from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, would be the most economical and common sense approach to meeting President Bush's plan.

http://www.space.com/news/ksc_bush_040116.html