NASA Moon Launch May Be Delayed After 2020

krou writes "The Guardian is reporting that NASA is quietly revising its internal estimates of a 2018 launch for its Ares V rocket. Although publicly the date given for the launch was 2020, the internal launch date was set for 2018. The shift in dates seems to be linked to 'growing budget woes,' and 'engineers say that means the public 2020 date to send humans back to the moon is in deepening trouble.' NASA administrator Mike Griffin blamed the White House, and the previous Bush administration, saying funding for Ares V and other projects fell from $4bn through 2015 to just $500m. 'This was to be allocated to early work on the Ares V heavy-lifter, and the Altair lunar lander. With only a half-billion dollars now available, this work cannot be done.'"

Comments

Hmm.

[Sillygates]

Maybe, this time, we will make it to the moon!

Re:Hmm.

[nschubach]

I'm still trying to figure out how and where they are launching the Moon... ;)

Re:Hmm.

[RuBLed]

That's no Moon!

May I be the first to say

[QuantumG]

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nasa_embarks_on_epic_delay

That's what NASA does.

Re:May I be the first to say

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought you were going to say something like:

"The answer to your question? Hindsight is 2020. The moon launch is 2023."

Re:the rest of the world should chip in

[ElSupreme]

For the last time it isn't theft. It's copyright infringement.

I call bullshit

[Seriousity]

NASA administrator Mike Griffin blamed the White House, and the previous Bush administration, saying funding for Ares V and other projects fell from $4bn through 2015 to just $500m.

Okay, the cost of the entire Apollo program was $25.4 billion dollars. That's 25,400,000,000 1969 dollars - about $135 billion in today's dollars. So why is it so much cheaper this time around?

I put it down to the fact that technology has advanced quite a lot since 1969* - The film industry in particular, if you're making a movie there's a heck of a lot more you can do with that kind of money than you could have in 1969.
-
*Disclaimer: All sly remarks on the redundancy of this sentence being used on slashdot are hereby inherently redundant.

Shhhhh!! Don't tell anyone, but...

[rts008]

From a secret launch site in the Florida Everglades, with a really big trebuchet. They are rounding up alligators as we speak, to fill the counterweight basket. It's gonna take a lot of gators!

They should have destroyed the world economy

[Anonymous Coward]

Then they'd get a $3 trillion bailout like Wall Street did.

Time

[lord_sarpedon]

Look, guys. Got to face this sometime.

America just isn't as young as it used to be.

Forty years ago? Sure. We could get a rocket up, in little time at all. And though we'll certainly never forget that first time - we were ready to go again just a few short years later.

But face the facts, people. The country isn't a spry 193 anymore. Let's just have hope that NASA is trying its best, Although its worrisome that the launch date doesn't seem very firm, just keep in mind - nothing would be worse than a premature launch.

We don't intend to disappoint.

If we cared enough to make the hard choice

[symbolset]

If we were willing to spend the money, to dare the risk, America might one day find she has what it takes to get an American to the moon and return safely. What lessons we must learn from that mission: the physics, the materials science, the computer and communications technology might drive a surge in American eminence in science and engineering. Yes, it is not easy. We should go to the moon and do these other things not because it is easy but because it is hard. It is an opportunity to prove that we have the grit, the intelligence and the skill that others do not, and we'll reap the benefit of taking that journey for a generation.

Or maybe we could just get ILM to do it in CGI and save budget. Is Bruce Willis available? Think of the product placement opportunities!

/Co-channeling JFK and Spielberg.

Re:If we cared enough to make the hard choice

[SEWilco]

We choose to go to the Moon not because it is easy,
but because we might get there someday if we have extra money left over from the meetings, all those Earth-navel-watching things, and paying companies to invent stuff that they can sell. Yeah, we'll get there someday.

You know, if we can send a man to the Moon, maybe we can send a man to the Moon.

It'll be done...

[Landshark17]

It'll be done when they can play Duke Nukem Forever on it.

Re:Due to economic realities....

[timeOday]

It is rare to have government-based research that does anything that starts the flame for a better, cheaper, more effective version by a few competing private firms.

That's why I'm holding off on this Internet thing... my capitalist bible says GEnie Online and CompuServe will crush it any day now.

That's a ways off...

[John Pfeiffer]

By the time they get there, they'll find a Chinese flag, an Indian flag, a Canadian flag, some monument to commercially-sponsored space travel, and a McDonald's.

Do you want fries with that?

Re:First rule of Engineering:

[HappyEngineer]

What will I get if I pick fast and cheap? If lack of "good" means that a few extra rockets blow up then all we need is a decent escape module on top of the cheap rocket. Sounds good to me.