At the same time that the Lunar Vehicle (LV) is being assembled and flight tested, the Cislunar Vehicle (CV) will be brought up and assembled (Image 1).
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| Image 1: The Cislunar Vehicle (CV) |
The CV Core and all of the hardware to connect the CV Saddlebags together will fly on one VentureStar, while the two CV Saddlebags themselves fly on another VentureStar. The vehicle will not be loaded with propellant before going into space.
The CV should be assembled by the Outpost crew and ready for testing by the time the LV has completed its testing. The CV will be partially filled with propellant from PMs to test the ability to receive propellant, but to also pump the propellant into the CV Core tanks. Then we test the engines and all of the systems while under way.
The last flight test would involve totally filled propellant tanks.
Once all of these tests are complete, the CV may be classified as operational.
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