NASA concludes space program review

HOUSTON, May 24 (UPI) -- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has concluded a six-month review of system requirements for its Constellation program.

The Constellation project -- including the Orion spacecraft, the Ares launch vehicles and other support systems -- involves development of a new space transportation system that will take astronauts to Earth's orbit, the moon, and eventually Mars.

NASA said the project's basic design, development, construction and operation architecture remains unchanged, but it now has a firmer foundation built through extensive analyses and validation testing.

A "baseline synchronization" Wednesday was designed to identify any conflicts or gaps between and among the individual systems and to establish a plan for resolving such issues, NASA said.

"This summer will bring a new season of rolling system definition reviews that will finish our requirements for initial mission capability and set us up for our first preliminary design reviews, said Jeff Hanley, Constellation program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

He said the next series of reviews will begin with the Orion system definition review in August and continue with Constellation program baseline synchronization next March.