After the loss of the Shuttle Challenger in January 1986, the first series of alternative launch vehicle studies were conducted by NASA in an effort to enhance crew safety. More substantial studies were initiated by the agency’s Decadal Planning Team in the late 1990s. When the Shuttle Columbia was destroyed returning to Earth in February 2003, NASA announced it would replace the Shuttle with new expendable launch vehicles and a return to crew capsules as part of Project Constellation announced by the President. NASA described this hardware in the Exploration Systems Architecture Study. The launch vehicles included the Ares I to launch the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and the heavy-lift Ares V to launch mission spacecraft and cargo.