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Lockheed Martin Wins Contract to Build Mars Lander
Lord_Slepnir writes "Lockheed Martin has won a contract to build the Orion crew exploration vehicle that will eventually take humans to the moon and then on to Mars. This vehicle will hopefully also replace the aging space shuttle fleet. According to NASA the vehicle will have manned missions by 2014 and moon missions by no later by 2020."
If you actually read the article and look at the images, you'll quickly realize this is more like the Mercury capsules, and is a giant leap backward for America. Meanwhile, the Brits are landing on the moon.
Some days, our continuing downward slide from prominence becomes more apparent. This is one of those days.
Is it better than a Mercury capsule? Sure.
Is it an improvement on the Shuttle? Doubtful at best, but you know they're spinning it that way.
However, it is possible this is more suitable to the space aims of a diminished nation that is at best an equal player with the EU, China, and Japan - and may even use less fuel to get the same basic job done.
But it's not progress. Unless you count progress as realizing we are no longer Number 1 in the Space Race.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
You are pretty much stuck on this rock then - because there isn't such a company in existence today. *Nobody* has any current experience in designing manned spacecraft. Even the Russians limit themselves to modest modification to their existing craft - it will be very interesting to see how Kliper plays out (assuming it ever gets built).