More Orion articles; Thank goodness there is an alternative

Spacetoday.net had many links to articles about the Orion contract. Here are three typical ones:
* Lockheed Wins Contract to Build NASA's New Spaceship - Washington Post - Sept.1.06
* Lockheed Wins Job of Building Next Spaceship - New York Times - Sept.1.06
* Lockheed Martin Wins NASA Contract - Houston Chronicle/AP - Aug.31.06
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I doubt that in the coming months and years I will be commenting much on Orion or the other shiny, precious projects in Mr. Griffin's Constellation. Frankly, it all seems a bit boring. Maybe this program will successfully return the US to the Moon by 2020. There are lots of great engineers working in it and they are quite capable of making it a success. However, the price tag is far too high for far too little. I want spaceflight to become practical, useful and broadly available. That's when it gets exciting. NASA will achieve none of these with the Constellation program. They are not even goals the agency recognizes.

So I will continue to focus on the private commercial spaceflight industry, which offers the only real hope that we will see those goals ever realized. The NY Times article says the contract sets "Lockheed up to be the dominant player in space exploration". I don't think so. I expect that in 2014 at least one or two independent commercial organizations will put more people into space than LM does.

Posted 08/31/06 | 23:52:01 by TopSpacer | Filed under: NASA Exploration Systems

Comments

I'm reminded of the comment by Robert Bigelow in his recent Space Show interview, where he estimated that there was a 50/50 chance on whether or not private industry would beat the US government to the moon.

Posted by Neil H. at 09/01/06 00:46:51

I wonder where will they get a fresh batch of german engineers for this rerun of Apollo :)

Posted by kert at 09/01/06 00:51:49

I didn't hear anything in the main stream press. And nothing about WHY Lockheed vs. NG/Boeing. I guess none of the vaunted space press core thinks details are important anymore. I don't think anyone outside of Houston even noticed this. On the positive side there was none of the usual media "this is a colossal waste of money" talk. It is a dead end, unsustainable program. And I still want to work on it! I guess because it is one of the only games in town.

Posted by Tony Rusi at 09/01/06 01:52:40

.

it's very interesting to know:

1. more tech details about LM Orion weights, dimensions, etc.

2. similar info (and drawings) of the Boeing version

do you have any link?

.

Posted by Gaetano Marano [ www.ghostNASA.com ] at 09/01/06 02:53:51

I watched most of the press briefing. The members of the press asked detailed and informed questions about the contractor selection process. The NASA officials gave generally evasive answers.

Posted by Matt Wronkiewicz at 09/01/06 06:11:44

My impression is that in the coming days the general reasons for the LM selection over the Northrop team will dribble out informally. I don't believe NASA will ever release any formal document that lists the plusses and minuses for the two designs. NASA typically keeps access to its internal deliberations very tightly controlled. In this case I think they will cite the use of proprietary company info for keeping the selection process secret.

I do expect that soon they will release more hard data on the specifications of the LM system, though there are still areas not finalized. E.g. in the news conference they said no final decision had been made yet on water vs. ground landing.
- C.

Posted by TopSpacer at 09/01/06 07:07:55

"NASA officials gave generally evasive answers."

As Mr. Cooke sais when asked this, he couldn't say anything until the contractors were informed in writing. See below.

"I don't believe NASA will ever release any formal document that lists the plusses and minuses for the two designs."

They issued a source selection letter to the two contractors that details the decision logic. There will also be formal debriefs from the selection team to the offerors.

Posted by anon at 09/01/06 07:35:21

"They issued a source selection letter to the two contractors that details the decision logic. There will also be formal debriefs from the selection team to the offerors."

But will any of those be made public? Were similar letters and debriefs provided for the six COTS finalists?
- C.

Posted by TopSpacer at 09/01/06 08:03:26

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