NASA's new
spaceship intended to send astronauts into space and ultimately the moon has
passed an early design review amid uncertainty over whether the rocket slated
to launch it into orbit will ever fly.
The
spacecraft, a capsule-based
vehicle called Orion, passed a preliminary review this month to make sure there
are no glaring problems with the design, which NASA plans to replace its aging
space shuttle fleet. Orion capsules are slated to begin operational flights in
2015 and, under the current plan, return astronauts to the moon by 2020.
"I'm very
excited about the design of this spacecraft," said Jeff Hanley, manager of
NASA's Constellation program developing Orion and its Ares I rocket booster.
"It's a very capable spacecraft not just for low-Earth orbit, but also for
returning astronauts to the vicinity of the moon."
The Orion
spacecraft is a 16.5-foot (5-meter) wide capsule designed to carry at least
four astronauts on crew change flights to the International Space Station or on
longer expeditions
to the moon. NASA originally envisioned launching six people aboard Orion,
but scaled down the crew size for the first flights earlier this year in order to maintain the 2015 flight schedule.
Orion's
preliminary design review, a major project milestone, comes as uncertainly
looms over the spacecraft's Ares I rocket, a two-stage booster slated to make
its first
test flight on Oct. 31.
Rocket
limbo
Earlier
this month, an independent committee appointed by the White House to review
NASA's plans for human space exploration came up with four
general options for consideration by President Barack Obama. Only one of
those options, a baseline study, included the Ares I rocket while others
replaced it with existing rockets or NASA's larger, heavy-lift Ares V booster
planned to support eventual moon missions.
The
committee, led by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine, is expected to
file a final report to the White House in upcoming weeks. Any presidential
decision to eliminate the Ares I rocket would add years to Orion's development,
project managers said, but NASA has a wealth of experts that could be ready to
review that option.
"It's
important for folks to understand that the rocket and the spacecraft fly as an
integrated system," Hanley said in a Tuesday teleconference. "So whatever we do
with respect to the launcher, we would have to go back and redo, to some
extent, work that is already done."
That could
mean a considerable reevaluation of Orion's design, adding up to two years to
NASA's already extended development schedule. An independent report released this
month found that NASA would have to spend
billions more than planned if it abandoned the Ares I rocket and replaced
it with an human-rated Delta 4 Heavy rocket currently available for unmanned
satellite launches.
"I think
we're very much staying on the plan right now until we receive new direction,"
Hanley said.
To date,
NASA has spent $3.1 billion developing the Orion spacecraft and $7.7 billion on
the Constellation program as a whole. The agency plans to spend about $35
billion on the program through 2015. The Augustine committee has said NASA does
not have the budget to meet its ultimate target - returning astronauts to
the moon by 2020 - unless it receives a substantial boost from the Obama
Administration.
Orion
work ahead
Currently,
the Orion crew capsule is about 300 pounds (136 kg) heavier than its target
weight of about 21,400 pounds (9,706 kg), spacecraft project manager Mark Geyer
told reporters. NASA has about 1,000 pounds (453 kg) of margin and expects to
hit its weight target soon, he added.
Geyer added
that engineers still have to complete a design review of a critical cover for
Orion's landing parachutes to make sure it is safe and efficient. That is expected
to be completed soon.
The final
critical design review for Orion, the Ares I rocket and other systems are not
scheduled until about 2011 or later, when NASA would begin building flight
hardware, Hanley added.
Once the Augustine
committee submits its report, the options it compiled will be evaluated by the
Obama Administration and NASA's new chief Charles Bolden, a former shuttle
commander.
"We have a
few weeks left to wait and see what happens with this review and what direction
Charlie Bolden and the team wants to take us," Hanley said. "So we wait with
great anticipation."
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