page_title: Modular Common Spacecraft Bus
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Modular Common Spacecraft Bus / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A Modular Common Spacecraft Bus being used as a hover test vehicle at Ames Research Center Building 45 in 2008. Engineers will install additional spacecraft electronics and science payloads, converting this vehicle into the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, scheduled for launch in mid-2013.
context_page_description: The Modular Common Spacecraft Bus is a fast-development, low-cost, general purpose spacecraft platform. Its modular design is intended to reduce the cost, complexity, and lead time on missions by providing a reliable, well-characterized system that can carry a variety of payloads. According to NASA, "the spacecraft is roughly one tenth the price of a conventional uncrewed mission and could be used to land on the Moon, orbit Earth, or rendezvous with near-Earth objects."
context_section_description: The MCSB supervisor, Alan Weston, obtained from NASA Ames Research Center $4 million in internal funding to get the project started. Using that money, the prototype was built in about 15 months during 2007–2008.  The fast concept development time is due in part to the preliminary use of repurposed SCUBA air tanks and an engine that uses cold gas, in place of a conventional rocket engine. This allowed the team to perform indoor flight tests as fast as every 40 minutes in their laboratory, rather than waiting weeks or months for a time slot at an appropriate rocket testing facility. After a flight demonstration to top NASA officials, the system was selected as the bus for the planned Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission to the Moon, and the project awarded $80 million for further development and construction. 
  In October 7, 2014, the MCSB design received the Popular Mechanics 2014 Breakthrough Award for innovation in science and technology.
caption: The Modular Common Spacecraft Bus being tested in 2008
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