NASA Shuttle Replacement's Problems Are Worsening

ausoleil noted that NASA's replacement for the shuttle, the Orion, is slipping behind schedule "'We're probably going to have to move our target date,' NASA exploration chief Doug Cooke told The Associated Press on Wednesday after Nasawatch.com posted the 117-page internal status report (PDF) on the moon program. The cost problems include an $80 million overrun on a motor system. The Orion spacecraft's design remains too heavy for the proposed Ares 1 rocket. Software development, heat shield testing and other complex work remain behind schedule or over budget. There are dozens of such serious challenges, many of which are 'worsening.'"

Comments

yeah, that's right. i'm not a rocket scientist

[Anonymous Coward]

but i'll play one on slashdot and come up with all kinds of rubber band and duct tape solutions and act like my 11th grade physics class bests nasa engineers.

wait, my friends, you'll see tons of posts just like this except for that the posters take themselves seriously.

Re:yeah, that's right. i'm not a rocket scientist

[dotancohen]

IIRC the solution to the problem of running out of breathable air involved rubber bands and duct tape.

Because duct tape can be bought on any budget. Hell, it better be the first thing on the budget. Hell, it's probably holding the budget together.

Re:yeah, that's right. i'm not a rocket scientist

[peragrin]

have you seen NASA's budget's? they not only need duct tape, and rubber bands to hold it together, but only macguyver is smart enough to understand it and he is a rocket scientist.

Re:yeah, that's right. i'm not a rocket scientist

[sm62704]

In the Army we had a variant we call missile tape which we used to cover the leading edges of the missiles elevons.

That would be "OH SHIT! DUCK!!!!" tape!

Just wait

[nizo]

I keep half expecting them to finally get one built, and then they realize they don't have a launch pad capable of handling something that big.

The Intermediate Solution

[WwWonka]

NASA has reported that the delay and the budget crunch has forced it to reconsider a prior option that will now be built on the shores of Cocoa Beach, FL. It will include two one hundred foot towers with a very elastic synthetic band extending between them. A state of the art human reclining space momentum chair will be attached in the middle to propel future explorers into space...or some where father out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Re:The Intermediate Solution

[RabidMoose]

This solution contains rubber bands, but is detrimentally lacking in duct tape.

Re:Did we really make it to the moon? - Can't

[Rub1cnt]

Copies of the manuals and the designs for the Saturn V still exist. And we've got one of the best examples out there. We still have original Saturn V rockets out at the space centers. Dust that damn thing off, REVERSE ENGINEER it. If NASA can't do it, HIRE MICROSOFT ENGINEERS! They've been doing it for YEARS.

Re:you get what you pay for

[Anonymous Coward]

Whoever believes that "you get what you pay for" has never prepaid for sex

It's nobody's fault but your own that you chose to get married.

Re:you get what you pay for

[sm62704]

The cheapest sex I ever had cost me a draft Budweiser. The most expensive cost me a house, a car, and part of my pension!

Re:don't forget zip-ties

[ArsonSmith]

My tool box has two items. Duct tape and WD-40.

If it moves and it's not suppose to Duct Tape it.
If it doesn't move and it is suppose to WD-40 it.

Re:Did we really make it to the moon?

[StalinsNotDead]

Or better, just take some funding away from the military and spend them where they aren't used to kill people and blow up things.

NASA does both of those things too, just not intentionally.