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You're kidding - right ...?

9/19/2015

2 Comments

 
PictureProposed US manned vehicle
I was amazed to read recently of the 'new schedule', announced by NASA, for the first manned flight of the Orion system.  Now they are proposing a first flight in 2023 - 8 years from now!

Recently I've been reading a great (old) book called 'Flight' that I recently discovered by Chris Kraft about the early days of the US manned space program.  I couldn't help contrasting what was happening then, and what's going on now.  Chris's account was full of pace, urgency and excitement as it recounted his experiences of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo eras.  I know there was political incentives then to beat the Soviet Union to the first footsteps on the lunar surface.  But despite this, I still find the slow pace of the current efforts incredible.  

Picture
Of course, it's not all down to the US, as the new vehicle's development now involves the Europeans.  Europe role is to adapt the ATV system so that it can operate as the 'service module' - see above image.  However, to deny that there are not similar political pressures these days is a mistake.  I think it's likely that Chinese astronauts (taikonauts?) will already be on the lunar surface when Orion undertakes it's first manned test!  

And is the fact that US astronauts are reliant on Russian launchers for access to the ISS, and orbit in general, an acceptable state of affairs?

You're kidding - right ...?  Time for the US administration to wake up and inject a little impetus, and the necessary funding, into the manned program to recapture national pride, and leadership in the arena of manned space exploration!

2 Comments
Doug M.
10/29/2015 11:17:48 pm

1) It's pretty unlikely that taikonauts will arrive on the Moon by 2023. The Chinese are playing their cards close, but they seem to be moving at their own deliberate pace, with the emphasis on gradually building capacity rather than dramatic leaps forward.

2) International coordination always imposes costs, but the Europeans don't seem to be the ones slowing things down here.

3) The glacial pace of Orion and SLS is probably connected the the fact that they have no mission yet. I mean, "crewed exploration of a near-Earth asteroid sometime in the late 2020s"? But that's all they've got.

The plain fact is, NASA didn't really need a Saturn-size heavy booster, and it didn't really need a crewed vehicle. So it's not really surprising that things are moving slowly.

4) Fond as I am of manned spaceflight, the nightmare scenario here is that SLS / Orion evolves into something like the Shuttle -- a bloated budget-hog that devours hundreds of billions of dollars over decades in return for, honestly, very little. You have to figure that a lot of people at NASA are familiar with that unhappy history.


Doug M.

Reply
Graham
10/30/2015 09:17:09 am

Hi Doug M - thanks for your response. Great to get something back. I agree with much of what you say - but I do believe that the Chinese space effort is underestimated. Watch that space! G

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    Graham Swinerd - I hope to use this page to highlight current major events in space and spacececraft.

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