Does a space elevator fit into the Vision for Space Exploration?
NASA’s new Vision for Space Exploration, with its call to return humans to the Moon in preparation for voyages beyond, sets a bold new course for the space agency from its previous focus on the space shuttle and International Space Station. One of the sharpest breaks from the past, arguably, is in the field of space transportation. Since the end of Apollo, much of the agency’s energies have been spent on efforts to reduce the cost of space access, through the shuttle, National Aerospace Plane, X-33, and the Space Launch Initiative. All of those efforts failed: only the shuttle actually flew, and, while a capable machine, came nowhere near the cost and frequency goals its backers promised three decades ago. NASA has taken a new attitude with the Vision. The cornerstone of the program is a new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), that in many minds will essentially be an updated version of the Apollo spacecraft, to be launched on versions of the EELV or, perhaps, a shuttle-der
