Keith’s note: I was immediately struck by the similarity of this image (much larger uncropped version) that Lockheed Martin released today of Orion and a shot from the iconic “2001: A Space Odyssey”. Or maybe I am just thinking a little bit to much about “2001” as I prepare to see “Interstellar” next week.
Orion Is Complete, Lochkeed Martin
“NASA and Lockheed Martin have completed final assembly and testing of the Orion spacecraft. The spacecraft will remain inside NASA’s Launch Abort System Facility at Kennedy Space Center until it rolls to launch pad 37 in November.”

Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member...

9 replies on “Haven't I Seen That Spacecraft Before?”

    1. Now – especially after seeing that photo — that’s just too painful to contemplate!!

      Ironically, if NASA had been able to take all that Orion/SLS money already spent, and used it immediately after Apollo, we’d likely be seeing that below image ( big earth-moon shuttle (called “Aries”, not “Ares”), inside a ginormous lunar base), as reality.

      And if Musk, Bezos and Bigelow can ever make peace, I’d bet together they could whip up something similar to Space Station One! (Only instead of having a Hilton there, it’d be Budget Suites.)

        1. Of course, he was lying about the price, but that was par for the course. The preliminary cost estimate for Apollo was $7B, and the final estimate was over $23B, in 1973 dollars. Given what was known then about gamma-ray flares and cosmic ray health effects, whatever we might have spent on it then would probably have ended up with several dead astronauts.

      2. Something I made for a forum. Yep, I saw the movie in 1968 (at the Century theaters on Winchester in San Jose, big panorama screen, stereophonic sound, snazzafrazza seats). It all made sense. My grandfather was in his 20s when Linbergh flew that treacherous flight across the Atlantic. In his 60s he took a flight in a comfortable 707 across the Atlantic, and served hot meals and a glass of wine. I’m getting near my 60s, never will go into space but I do have a “picture phone” which rarely use the camera (text instead).

    2. I saw it when it first came out. It was at a Cinerama theater. Giant screen went from ear to ear. The 900 foot Discover spacecraft looked 900 foot long.

  4. Guess I’ve been in too many clean rooms. They just don’t make me think of Clavius Base. Probably the difference in lighting.

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