NASA announces Constellation assignments

Washington -- The U.S. space agency has assigned specific responsibility to its individual centers for projects designed to enable astronauts to explore the moon.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the assignments for the Constellation Program that will take humans to the moon cover elements of the lunar lander and lunar surface operations, as well as for the Ares V, a heavy-lift rocket for lunar missions.

Officials said each center will have the opportunity for additional work assignments as Constellation Program elements become further defined.

NASA's Constellation Program is designed to send astronauts to the moon, where they will establish a lunar outpost to prepare for human exploration of the solar system. The first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft, to be launched aboard an Ares I rocket, is scheduled for no later than 2015. Astronauts are to return to the moon by 2020.

A center-by-center breakdown of the new assignments is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/constellation.

© 2007 United Press International.