Origin
The initial plans for the International Space Station envisaged a small, low-cost 'Assured Crew Return Vehicle' (ACRV) which would provide emergency evacuation capability; the X-38 was the prototype of this. Following cancellation of the ACRV in 2002, the program led to the more capable Orbital Space Plane concept.
The first variant of the Orbital Space Plane was designed to serve as a crew rescue vehicle for the ISS; this replaced the previous plans for a dedicated station Crew Return Vehicle, which had been sidelined by budget cuts.
This early version of the plane had been expected to enter service by 2010.
Read more about this topic: Orbital Space Plane Program
Famous quotes containing the word origin:
“High treason, when it is resistance to tyranny here below, has its origin in, and is first committed by, the power that makes and forever re-creates man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The essence of morality is a questioning about morality; and the decisive move of human life is to use ceaselessly all light to look for the origin of the opposition between good and evil.”
—Georges Bataille (1897–1962)