Orion is dead!

ynotdu

the 'reprieve' given to Orion to become only a means to transport or rescue a crew to/from the ISS seems to have been more nonsense from Obama.just a sop to the 'new direction's many many critics.

Still beats Me how Augustine and Obama got it all so wrong.(to be fair Bush left a right mess behind anyway)

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2010/06/orion-liability-lockheed-pull-600-engineers-off-contract/

Dragon seems to have much more of a chance of that role now since the success of falcon 9

Dragon is a spacecraft which SpaceX has been developing for NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme, which is intended to allow for commercial resupply missions to the International Space Station following the retirement of the Space Shuttle.

SpaceX and Rocketplane Kistler were awarded contracts to develop their proposals in 2006, however in 2007 the contract with Rocketplane Kistler was terminated, and a new contract was awarded to Orbital Sciences Corporation in 2008, which has led to the development of the Cygnus spacecraft that is expected to fly next year.

In addition to the prototype on this launch, three Dragons will be launched on COTS demonstration missions, followed by up to twelve operational resupply missions under the Commercial Resupply Services contract, signed in late 2008. Two independent DragonLab scientific flights are also scheduled. Despite only being contracted for unmanned missions, the Dragon spacecraft was designed to be capable of manned flight, and SpaceX claims that a manned launch could be made with a lead time of approximately three years.

djhaxman

:rolleyes: I thought this was the Betelgeuse story again

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/06/01/is-betelgeuse-about-to-blow/

ynotdu

djhaxman wrote: »

:rolleyes: I thought this was the Betelgeuse story again

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/06/01/is-betelgeuse-about-to-blow/

:D:D