Launching Orion on EELVs

Obama Team Considers NASA Use of Modified Military Rockets, Wall Street Journal

“President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, considering ways to reduce the cost and risk associated with manned space exploration, has broached the idea of using modified U.S. military rockets to launch the eventual replacement for the space shuttle. No decision has been made and the concept raises major technical, funding and policy issues. But in recent weeks, the transition team assigned to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been asking aerospace industry officials about the feasibility of such a dramatic shift in priorities.”

Editor’s note: When asked in today’s ESMD about moving Orion to an EELV Doug Cooke said “We do not have any data on that specifically.” This is certainly a rather odd thing for Doug to say given that he and his staff regularly tell people that they know that using Ares 1 to launch Orion would be cheaper and safer than using an EELV. In order to know that Ares 1 is cheaper, don’t you need to know what the cost of launching Orion on an EELV is Doug? Otherwise, how can you do the math to show that it is cheaper?