Crew Return Vehicle

The Crew Return Vehicle (CRV), sometimes referred to as the Assured Crew Return Vehicle (ACRV), is the proposed lifeboat or escape module for the International Space Station (ISS). A number of different vehicles and designs have been considered over the past two decades – with several flying as developmental test prototypes – but no one single design has been built as the dedicated CRV.

In the original space station design, emergencies were intended to be dealt with by having a "safe area" on the station that the crew could evacuate to, pending a rescue from a U.S. Space Shuttle. However, the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and the subsequent grounding of the shuttle fleet caused station planners to rethink this concept. Planners foresaw the need for a CRV to address three specific scenarios:

NASA X-38

The X-38 Program, under leadership of the NASA-Johnson Space Center, was focused on developing the technology for a prototype emergency Crew Return Vehicle for the International Space Station (ISS). The project also intended to develop a crew return vehicle design that could be modified for other uses, such as a possible joint U.S. and international human spacecraft that could be launched on the French Ariane 5 booster.

The program would eventually develop a total of three test prototype flight demonstrators for the proposed Crew Return Vehicle, each having incremental improvements on its predecessor. All three were wingless lifting body vehicles used in drop tests. The X-38 program was cancelled in 2002 due to budget cuts.

History

The maximum crew size for the ISS is dependent on crew rescue capacity. Since it is imperative that the crew members be able to return to Earth in case of an unexpected emergency, a Crew Return Vehicle able to hold up to seven crew members was initially planned by the ISS program leadership. This would have allowed the full complement of seven astronauts to live and work on the ISS.