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Cargo LV

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AKA: Cargo Launch Vehicle. Status: Design 2005. Payload: 124,600 kg (274,600 lb). Thrust: 32,629.61 kN (7,335,427 lbf). Gross mass: 2,900,258 kg (6,393,974 lb). Height: 106.80 m (350.30 ft). Diameter: 8.40 m (27.50 ft).

The Cargo LV would use two five-segment versions of the shuttle's RSRM rocket motors as lateral boosters (the standard RSRM had four segments). The core would be a stretched version of the shuttle's external tank, with five expendable versions of the shuttle SSME engine mounted on the base. This basic vehicle could deliver 106 tonnes to low earth orbit. However, normally it would be used with an upper stage for manned lunar missions. On such missions the basic vehicle would separate from the upper stage while still suborbital. The upper stage, also based on the external tank but powered by two J-2S engines, would insert itself into an earth parking orbit. Its payload would be a lunar lander. After up to thirty days in orbit, a manned CEV spacecraft would rendezvous and dock with the upper stage and lander. The upper stage would launch the lander and CEV toward the moon, then separate.

For later manned Mars expeditions, four to five launches of the Cargo LV would be required to assemble the Mars spacecraft in low earth orbit.