Closer Look at NASA FY 2015 Budget
NASA FY 2015 President’s Budget Request Summary
“In the FY 2015 President’s Budget Request, NASA addresses the challenge of advancing U.S. leadership in space exploration, space and Earth science, and aeronautics in the current fiscal climate. In formulating this budget, projects and programs have been reviewed and their costs and benefits assessed to ensure the highest scientific return on the dollar.”
Interesting sentence in the paper:
“Our engineers are now building spacecraft capable of carrying humans to another planet or a moving asteroid.”
Are they referring to Orion? I thought LocMart was building that. And ‘capable of carrying humans to another planet’? Unless the requirements have changed, I thought Orion was only good to lunar orbit, not interplanetary travel. Maybe they are redefining ‘planet’…
The Orion will need help from a habitation module and an inspace propulsion unit to go to other planets. It could dock with them in LEO.
While true, that does not necessarily mean the capsule itself is ready for an interplanetary journey. Could be the requirements and the design for Orion has changed since the CEV proposal days and they can accommodate a trip to beyond lunar orbit, but I don’t know, as I haven’t kept up.
But if not, you can’t just declare Orion will make interplanetary trips, as the NASA document does.
I guess to be fair, the spacecraft they refer to is not identified. But, if NASA is building another crewed vehicle for interplanetary travel, I think that will be news to most of us around here.
No matter what camp you’re in the budget is cynical, myopic and disgusting. We deserve what we get for electing those people.