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NASA'S Orion Arrives At Kennedy, Work Underway For First Launch
An anonymous reader writes in with news about the arrival of the Orion spacecraft at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center today. "More than 450 guests at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida welcomed the arrival of the agency’s first space-bound Orion spacecraft Monday, marking a major milestone in the construction of the vehicle that will carry astronauts farther into space than ever before. 'Orion’s arrival at Kennedy is an important step in meeting the president’s goal to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s,' NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said. 'As NASA acquires services for delivery of cargo and crew to the International Space Station and other low-Earth destinations from private companies, NASA can concentrate its efforts on building America’s next generation space exploration system to reach destinations for discovery in deep space. Delivery of the first space-bound Orion, coupled with recent successes in commercial spaceflight, is proof this national strategy is working.'"
Here's an alternative article, the linked one appears to be down or /.'d.
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2012/07/02/NASAs-Orion-spacecraft-arrives-in-Florida/UPI-87191341254811/?spt=hs&or=sn
It's Constellation that was defunded (with the Ares I and Ares V rockets). A replacement rocket (the Space Launch System) was funded instead.
For those keeping score at home:
The Constellation Program developing next-gen human spaceflight was investigated in the early 2000s, and reinvigorated in revised form in 2004, when President Bush endorsed significant spending on manned space exploration.
NASA began developing, as part of that project, a Crew Exploration Vehicle, working on it roughly 2004-2005, somewhat into 2006.
The head of NASA changed in early 2005, and the new head ordered a new study reevaluating NASA's human spaceflight programs.
As part of that study's outcome, the Orion spacecraft was contracted out to Lockheed, starting from 2006.
In 2009, President Obama ordered a new study reevaluating NASA's human spaceflight programs.
As part of that study's outcome, Constellation got the axe in the proposed 2011 budget (released early 2010).
The final version of the budget (late 2010) salvaged some parts of Constellation, spinning much of it off into a cheaper, scaled-down program, of which Orion is a major part, the other major part being the new launch vehicle. All that got going again in 2011.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
She'll make point five past lightspeed. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid.
Everything is better with chainsaws.
This is their launch-return vehicle, they're obviously not going to sit in something the size of a small minivan for 6 months on the way to Mars or an asteroid (unless its Apophis or something similar). The idea is they take this to orbit, dock with a spacecraft assembled in space, then go to wherever they want to go (eventually). The shuttle was always a boondoggle, the only reason it had the configuration it did was to return things from orbit, which it almost never did. They had to build a much less efficient reentry platform for that purpose, and even when reusable most of the external components weren't. A conical shape like this is very cheap since it's single use, there is no reason you cant salvage internal components if you want either.
The Russians have been using designs like this for over 50 years and their manned space program is TONS cheaper than ours, and you cant say that they cut safety corners to save money since their record over the last 20 years is FAR better.
Personally I'd rather have my idiots at home glued to the TV than out doing idiotic things