Shuttle-derived vehicle

Shuttle-derived vehicles (SDV) are space launch vehicles and spacecraft that use components, technology, and infrastructure originally developed for the Space Shuttle program.^[1]

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, NASA formally studied a cargo-only vehicle, Shuttle-C, that would have supplemented the crewed Space Shuttle. In 2005, NASA was developing the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, based in part on highly modified Shuttle components, to enable exploration of the Moon and Mars.^[2][3] The agency also studied a third such vehicle, the Ares IV.^[4]

After the earlier programs were cancelled, NASA began development of the Space Launch System (SLS) in 2011. SLS is a super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle. Its core stage is structurally and visually similar to the Space Shuttle external tank. Each SLS launch reuses and expends four of the pre-flown RS-25D engines that were de-mounted from the Space shuttles. SLS also uses a pair of solid rocket boosters derived from the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster. The first SLS was delivered to Kennedy Space Center in 2021 for the Artemis 1 mission. As of November 2022^[update], this SLS was rolled out to Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B for several attempts to launch, finally launching on 16 November 2022.^[5]