Earth_orbit_rendezvous
Earth orbit rendezvous
Method for conducting round trip human flights to the Moon
Earth orbit rendezvous (EOR) is a method for conducting round trip human flights to the Moon, involving the use of space rendezvous to assemble, and possibly fuel, components of a translunar vehicle in low Earth orbit.[1] It was considered and ultimately rejected in favor of lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) for NASA's Apollo program of the 1960s and 1970s, mainly because LOR does not require a spacecraft big enough to both make the return trip from Earth orbit to splash down in the ocean, and a soft landing on the lunar surface.[2] Three decades later, it was planned to be used for Project Constellation, until that program's cancellation in October 2010.[3]