Orion delay likely if Ares-1 is cancelled

The Orion capsule that will take astronauts back to the Moon and beyond could be delayed by more than two years if the Ares-1 rocket is canceled as part of the recommendations of the Augustine Committee that is studying NASA’s manned space program. The comment comes from a NASA official quoted by the Orlando Sentinel .

The Ares and Orion programs are part of the $35 billion Constellation program that will replace the space shuttle with a smaller medium lift vehicle to get astronauts into space, and a larger unmanned Ares-V heavy-lift vehicle to get major components into orbit.

The Orion capsule, which will sit on top of the Ares-1 rocket, passed its preliminary design review on Tuesday, a major step towards building actual hardware.

The review evaluated the vehicle’s capability, as currently designed, to support three types of missions: flights to the International Space Station, weeklong missions to the moon and missions to the moon for up to 210 days.

“The Orion vehicle design is much more mature than you might see on many programs at the review checkpoint because we have worked so closely with our NASA counterparts every step of the way during the vehicle design phase,” said Cleon Lacefield, vice president and Orion project manager at Lockheed Martin in Denver. “To date we have completed more than 300 technical reviews, 100 peer reviews and 18 subsystem design reviews.”

However, Ares 1 faces mounting technical and financial problems, which suggest that the likelihood that the launcher will be canceled in the next few days is high.

Paul Guinnessy