America will send a new generation of explorers to the moon aboard NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle. After that, on to MARS!!!

All the crew members aboard space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station gathered in the station's Harmony module

Tuesday morning and spoke to the President of the United States, members of Congress and students. They also fielded questions from

reporters during a joint crew news conference in the afternoon.

NASA Chooses "Altair" as Name for Astronauts' Lunar Lander

NASA has selected Altair as the name of the lunar lander the Constellation Program will use to put humans on the moon. Altair will be capable of landing four astronauts on the moon, providing life support and a base for weeklong initial surface exploration missions, and returning the crew to the Orionspacecraft that will bring them home to Earth. Altair will launch aboard an AresV rocket into low Earth orbit, where it will rendezvous with the Orion crew vehicle.

Solar-powered enclosed colony at the Moon's pole. Water is

obtained from ice deposits near the poles.