As part of NASA’s budget wrangling a key question for Johnson Space Center has been whether the development of the Orion spacecraft will continue. Orion was a component of NASA’s Constellation Program that President Obama canceled last year.
But Congress wanted Orion to hang on in one form or another, and frankly so did Johnson Space Center because the program is a key employer.
Now, NASA says, it will continue developing a fairly robust version of the Orion vehicle as part of Congress’ budget plan. They’ve given it a catchy new name, however, the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.
“We are committed to human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and look forward to developing the next generation of systems to take us there,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a news release.
“The NASA Authorization Act lays out a clear path forward for us by handing off transportation to the International Space Station to our private sector partners, so we can focus on deep space exploration. As we aggressively continue our work on a heavy lift launch vehicle, we are moving forward with an existing contract to keep development of our new crew vehicle on track.”
Orion’s specs have changed a lot in the half dozen years it has been on the drawing boards, but in its latest iteration the space capsule being built by Lockheed Martin will have the following features, NASA says:
- The spacecraft will carry four astronauts for 21-day missions and be able to land in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.
- The spacecraft will have a pressurized volume of 690 cubic feet, with 316 cubic feet of habitable space.
- It is designed to be 10 times safer during ascent and entry than its predecessor, the space shuttle.
I’m not sure why NASA feels compelled to denigrate the space shuttle when, at this point, there’s very little basis to claim the new vehicle will be 10 times safer than the space shuttle. The space shuttle was designed to be a lot safer than it has been, as well. But I digress.
The good news here that, in its new form, Orion will no longer be developed just as a lifeboat for the space station, but have the capacity to go a bit beyond low-Earth orbit. It’s also good for Houston, because it keeps a major program going at Johnson Space Center.
The bad news is that these are concepts on paper and mock-ups, and such concepts often don’t become real-life, flying spacecraft.
UPDATED: For the first time in awhile, it seems, Congressional leaders are happy with NASA as a result of this announcement:
“This is a good thing,” said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida. “It shows real progress towards the goal of exploring deep space and eventually getting to Mars. And it’s good for Florida, too, because hundreds of Kennedy Space Center employees will have jobs assembling the new crew capsule at the center’s Operations and Checkout building.”
“After more than a year of uncertainty and delay, NASA has come to the same conclusion that it reached years ago – Orion is the vehicle that will advance our human exploration in space,” said U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. “The bipartisan law that I helped pass in Congress and was signed by the President last year reiterated support for Orion. Congress recently enacted a full year appropriation for NASA that clearly directed the agency to continue Orion. I am pleased this decision has finally been announced. In order to avoid the needless loss of additional skills and infrastructure, NASA needs to follow this important step by quickly finalizing and announcing the heavy lift launch vehicle configuration so that work can accelerate and the requirements of the law can be met.”
Sorting out the behind-the-scenes politics of the announcement, after months of bickering between NASA and Congress, will be interesting.