spacetoday.net: NASA unveils new CEV name ahead of schedule

Posted: Wed, Aug 23, 2006, 8:33 AM ET (1233 GMT)
Northrop-Boeing CEV design (Northrop Grumman)

NASA confirmed late Tuesday that the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) will be known as "Orion", an announcement made a week and a half ahead of schedule because of an inadvertent leak. The leak came from an air-to-ground transmission from the International Space Station, where astronaut Jeffrey Williams was recording a promotion for later use and used the name Orion to refer to the CEV. The transmission was supposed to go on a private channel, but instead was broadcast publicly because of a configuration error on the ground. With the name leaked, NASA formally announced Tuesday night that Orion would be the new name of the CEV. The space agency had planned to wait until the end of the month to make the announcement, at the same time as the agency is expected to pick a prime contractor for the CEV from proposals made by Lockheed Martin and a Northrop Grumman-Boeing team. The Orion name for the CEV was first reported last month by collectSPACE.