NASA nails down Astrovan successor for transport
Astronauts during the space shuttle era got their rides to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center for the most part from a classic converted Airstream dubbed the Astrovan. For the next generation, NASA has determined what its Artemis astronauts will ride in before blasting off to the moon and beyond.
NASA will get a fleet of three crew transportation vehicles from Canoo Technologies Inc. designed to take the astronauts fully suited up along with their support team and equipment on the 9-mile ride from the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building to Launch Pad 39-B to board the Orion spacecraft atop the Space Launch System.
The rides, officially referred to as Crew Transportation Vehicles, are based on the company’s all-electric LV model. They won’t be needed until Artemis II, the first crewed mission of the program slated for no earlier than May 2024. Artemis I, an uncrewed flight to the moon is slated to launch this summer. Artemis III, aiming for no earlier than 2025, seeks to return humans including the first woman to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.
“We are honored to transport the Artemis crew to the launch site for the first human lunar landing in more than 50 years,” said Canoo Chairman and CEO Tony Aquila. “The selection of our innovative technologies by NASA to take a diverse team of American astronauts to the moon showcases a great commitment to sustainable transportation.”
The new vehicles are based on Canoo’s all-electric LV models, but customized for NASA, able to seat eight including the four astronauts expected to fly on most Orion flights. Canoo’s headquarters are moving from California to Bentonville, Arkansas, with manufacturing in Pryor, Oklahoma.
The company won the $147,855 contract through competitive bidding.
“Our customized vehicles are modular and upgradable throughout their lifecycle with a high level of recyclability at end of life,” Aquila said.
The new vehicles are boxy, described as pod-shaped in a post on the NASA website, but touted as environmentally friendly with zero-emission technology.
The Astrovan was used for most of the space shuttle missions beginning in 1983 with STS-9 and used through the final flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-135 in 2011.
Canoo is set to deliver the vehicles no later than June 2023. They will be used for prelaunch operations in addition to launch day transportation.
No crew transportation to any launch pad was needed from 2011 until SpaceX launched the Demo-2 mission in May 2020 when Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley flew to the International Space Station, but they got a ride in special Teslas before lifting off on their Crew Dragon from Launch Pad 39-A.
Boeing announced that its commercial crew eventually flying on the CST-100 Starliner from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station will get an updated Airstream to be called Astrovan 2.
Apollo-era astronauts got their ride from a converted Clark Cortez motorhome, which was used from 1967 beginning with Apollo 7 and all the way through the first several space shuttle missions.