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| Orion 15 & Altair 2 |
Mission insignia
 |
| Mission statistics |
| Mission name |
Orion 15 & Altair 2 |
| Launch pad |
Launch Pad 39A |
| Launch date |
June 2019 |
| Landing |
June 2019 |
| Mission duration |
~45 ± 10 days w/ 7 days on lunar surface |
| Orbital altitude |
~200-250 nautical miles (~320-400 km) in LEO |
| Orbital inclination |
~28.5 degrees in LEO |
| Distance traveled |
TBD |
| Related missions |
|
|
Altair 2 is the current designation for the Altair spacecraft that will attempt to make, during the Orion 15 mission, the first Constellation lunar landing, the seventh manned landing in human history. Altair 2 will be the eighth U.S. manned-rated lunar lander on the surface of the Moon, the first crewed lander since the Apollo LM Challenger in 1972 (Altair 2 will conduct a lunar test landing similar to Apollo 10), and despite its design to hold four astronauts, will carry three astronauts (leaving the fourth in lunar orbit aboard the Orion 15 spacecraft). A landing site has not yet been chosen.[1][2]
Altair 2 is currently scheduled to take place in June 2019. It will be launched atop the powerful Ares V SDLV from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A, and will be linked up in low earth orbit, along with the Earth Departure Stage, by the Orion 15 crew.
While the Orion 15 mission is planned to last approximately 21 days total, Altair 2 will be on the lunar surface for up to 7 days, and will be discarded after the landing party returns to lunar orbit. After Altair 2 is discarded, it will be left in lunar orbit, in which it will either crash into the lunar surface after its orbit decays (as it happened with the LM Eagle), or it will be deliberately crashed into the surface as NASA did with all of the remaining (except for the LM Aquarius) Apollo LMs from Apollos 12 to 17. The deliberate crashing of all of the LMs by NASA was used to calibrate the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP) seismometers left on the lunar surface.
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