NASA has delayed the first test flight of Orion’s launch abort system by two years to 2017.
NASA has delayed the first test flight of Orion’s launch abort system by two years to 2017.
NASA officials have been warning since last year that work on Orion would be slowed to keep pace with the development of SLS and its launch infrastructure. The agency has proposed trimming Orion’s $1.2 billion budget back to $1 billion for 2013. With the high-altitude abort test facing at least a budget-driven delay, the Langley team has proposed conducting one or more less-expensive tests in its place. Ortiz said conducting a hot-fire test in 2015 or 2016 would “keep the [launch abort system] project moving forward and help alleviate risk.”
I predict that Dragon will not only test its launch abort system first, it will have humans flying on it before Orion. And Dragon will do this for a fraction of the total cost that Orion and SLS spend per year. I also predict that when Dragon does this, Congress will finally begin noticing this disparity, and SLS will die unlaunched.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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NASA has delayed the first test flight of Orion’s launch abort system by two years to 2017.
NASA officials have been warning since last year that work on Orion would be slowed to keep pace with the development of SLS and its launch infrastructure. The agency has proposed trimming Orion’s $1.2 billion budget back to $1 billion for 2013. With the high-altitude abort test facing at least a budget-driven delay, the Langley team has proposed conducting one or more less-expensive tests in its place. Ortiz said conducting a hot-fire test in 2015 or 2016 would “keep the [launch abort system] project moving forward and help alleviate risk.”
I predict that Dragon will not only test its launch abort system first, it will have humans flying on it before Orion. And Dragon will do this for a fraction of the total cost that Orion and SLS spend per year. I also predict that when Dragon does this, Congress will finally begin noticing this disparity, and SLS will die unlaunched.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
What congress noticed is SpaceX cost more then anyone else ever used to deliver cargo to the ISS, with a bad failure rate. Also that Dragon offers no potential for BEO, or of sustaining any US capacity.
Hilarious! But you should include a tag to let everyone know it’s a joke.
Is it really that hard for NASA to get a clue and change its procedures to quicken things up a bit?
Nasa in my opinion is still just an employment agency for more and more government workers.
More than likely engineers who couldn’t get work outside the government.
Good idea to leave out the parts about “could be delayed” and “to accommodate the tighter program budgets anticipated”. That kind of context only confuses things.
I am sure you will do the same if Space X delays any of their milestones due to budget shortfalls (which are already happening in Commercial Crew).
Note that if Space X makes it’s September 2012 launch date for its first operational cargo delivery to ISS if will be 2 years 10 months behind schedule and there were no budget shortfalls there.
I wonder what SpaceX could do with a BILLION dollar budget and the power of the US government behind them?
I don’t think the total budget of SpaceX for ALL its projects is more than a billion dollars.
I think Falcon9 cost then less than 500 milliontotal to develop, test, build and launch.
Nasa is talking about a yearly budget of a 1.2 billion dollars with an estimated final launch date of 2018. Added together that’s over 10 billion to make a launch.
>.. I don’t think the total budget of SpaceX for ALL its projects is more than a billion dollars.
I beleave they got $800 million in development money from NASA alone. Musk put in $100M. NOt sure about the rest – but I’m real sure its well over a billion.
I could supply the URL to the goverment report on that — assuming your actually interested.
I’ve come from 2019.
SpaceX not only delivers cargo to ISS but also lands it’s rockets on their butts like God intended. They haven’t launched a crewed Dragon yet due to an abort system failure. If all goes well they will launch by the end of 2019. However they are also building a much larger rocket ultimately designed to fly to Mars and back.
NASA, on the other hand, has completely mismanaged the SLS and Orion which will not be ready for first flight until 2021 and NASA bureaucrats find it impossible to land on the Moon by 2024. Basically they have various parts scattered here and yon.
The same people in 2012 are making the same excuses in 2019. Apparently blowing through $50 billion is just not enough money and 9 years of development is not enough time. Stop laughing.
Oh and Donald Trump is President.