Ares V, formally the Cargo Launch Vehicle, was one of two rockets planned under NASA's Constellation program. Both it and the smaller Ares I were Shuttle-derived launch vehicles. Ares I was tasked with launching the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle to low Earth orbit, while Ares V would perform uncrewed launches of large payloads, such as the Altair lunar lander or elements of a Mars Transfer Vehicle. It was a 2.5 stage launch system, with two Shuttle-derived 5 segment RSRMV solid boosters, a core stage, and a dual-purpose second stage/Earth Departure Stage

For lunar missions, Ares V would carry Altair and the Earth Departure Stage to LEO, where it would wait for up to 4 days for launch and rendezvous of the Orion CEV with astronauts aboard. A jettisonable Loiter Skirt would provide electrical power and other services to EDS during this coast phase. EDS would then fire again to perform trans-lunar injection, and then be discarded

Ares V went through numerous iterations during development, as its performance requirements dramatically increased to offset underperformance of Ares I and Orion. This model represents Ares V as it existed near the end of the Constellation program, with 10 meter diameter tanks for both the Core Stage and EDS, and 6 RS-68B main engines. Ultimately, with Constellation's cancellation, Ares V was replaced with the currently-flying Space Launch System

Includes fairing livery for an Altair mission (Altair lander is shown in one preview render for illustrative purposes, but is not included)

All materials, textures, and linked libraries are packed in the .blend file. Image textures have also been exported as a zip file for use in other software. Unapplied modifiers and instancing have been used to reduce file size and enable easy editing