NASA to develop new spacecraft to take astronauts into space

NASA announced on Tuesday that it will develop a new spacecraft that can bring humans into deep space, basing the designs off the Orion capsule, the spacecraft originally slated to take astronauts back to the moon.

The new spacecraft will be designed by defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin, and is one of the surviving parts of the Constellation space program, which President Obama canceled last year after the program fell behind schedule and went over budget.

"We are committed to human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and look forward to developing the next generation of systems to take us there," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a news release.

The new spacecraft is dubbed the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), and will be designed to carry four astronauts at a time into deep space on 21-day missions,  Bolden said. 

Bolden added that the spacecraft will be 10-times safer than existing spacecraft during ascent and reentry into the Earth's atmosphere.