Now THAT is a Rocketship Lifting Off
Delta IV Heavy Launches NRO Payload, ULA
“A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) lifted off from Space Launch Complex-6 here at 11:03 a.m. PDT Wednesday. Designated NROL-65, the mission is in support of national defense. This is ULA’s eighth launch in 2013, the 24th Delta IV mission and the second Delta IV Heavy launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base.”
Larger image by Pat Corkery/ULA
Orion should be flying with astronaut crews, on this rocket, during this decade. Demonstrably reliable and suitable for deep space exploration architectures, with or without the Senate Launch System.
Yes, it certainly is.
May be worthwhile considering why the NRO-USAF partnership is so technically accomplished and politically supported, and why the NASA-civil side is neither.
Something to be said for a clear, understandable mission that is in support of the nation’s goals in the world.
There’s a reason the DoD separates the NRO’s mission from, say, those of Air Force Materiel Command.
NASA’s mission has always been too much for one organization; perhaps a question for NASAWatch’s habitues is how to accomplish the current missions of the agency more efficiently and effectively.
Looking at it simply from a procurement POV, the fact that the US taxpayer is funding (whether adequately or not is a different question) the R&D and/or procurement of no less than four large launch vehicles (Delta IV, Atlas V, SLS, and Falcon) and as many planned manned spacecraft (Dragon, CST-100, Orion CEV/MPCV, SNC/CCDev), it seems pretty clear that a down-select is necessary, for budgetary and stragegic reasons, alone.
My own bet would be Delta IV Heavy and CST-100, for the low risk alone; Dragon/Falcon as the alternate. Orion/SLS is too much for the budget, period; Atlas V should be DQd because of the foreign content, and SNC should be rolled into a X-plane type POC program, akin to X-37.
Ad astra per ardua