Comments on: The first test flight of NASA’s Orion capsule has been delayed from September to December. https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/the-first-test-flight-of-nasas-orion-capsule-has-been-delayed-from-september-to-december/ Tue, 18 Mar 2014 02:03:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Robert Zimmerman https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/the-first-test-flight-of-nasas-orion-capsule-has-been-delayed-from-september-to-december/#comment-161059 Tue, 18 Mar 2014 02:03:20 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=27800#comment-161059 In reply to Dick Eagleson.

I consider the reasons offered for the delay as “lame” in that they are simply not believable to me. I’ve watched government bureaucracies play these public relations games for decades, and this one smells of a fake excuse to hide the real reasons for the delay.

The real reasons might simply be the ordinary difficulties that a new space project normally experiences, not anything significant, but it strikes me that NASA is still trying to hide them, nonetheless.

]]> By: Dick Eagleson https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/the-first-test-flight-of-nasas-orion-capsule-has-been-delayed-from-september-to-december/#comment-161053 Tue, 18 Mar 2014 01:28:03 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=27800#comment-161053 I’m inclined to share your suspicions about Orion’s readiness for prime time, but I don’t share your characterization of the offered “excuse” as “lame”. I think Orion would have been bumped regardless of whether it will be “ready” or not. I see this as just one more evidentiary data point in support of Rand Simberg’s frequent observation that human space travel just isn’t seen as being very important by the American political class. Even in these dark days of the Obama administration, however, national defense is still seen as an important priority, even if less so by Democrats than by Republicans. So if a national defense payload needs facilities that are currently penciled in for use by a human spaceflight-related mission, the latter is absolutely going to get bumped, ready or not.

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