NASA Orion Spaceship Blog

An investigation team has been assembled at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) following a failure that occurred on the third Parachute Drop Test (PDT) at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona.The incident, which destroyed the Drop Test Vehicle (DTV), happened during a drop test of the pilot parachute on top of the DTV, which impacted the ground at such a speed, special excavation equipment is required to recover the nose of the DTV - which is buried 30 feet below the surface.  Read more

U.S. President George W. Bush’s $2.9 trillion fiscal 2008 space and science budget includes more than $6 billion for NASA.

Included is $1.2 billion for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a new rocket for Orion, the space vehicle that will replace the space shuttle in 2010. NASA would also receive $1.6 billion to conduct astronomy research, upgrade the Hubble telescope and build new space telescopes.  Read more

Two teams at the Engineering Development Center’s Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel 9 here were recently involved in tests for NASA’s next crew exploration vehicle.

One team made use of conventional and advanced measurement techniques during the NASA-sponsored aerothermal testing on a scale model of the space agency’s new Orion, the projected spacecraft that will send a new generation of explorers to the moon.   Read  more

If Congress clears a mid-year spending bill next week as planned, it will be the seventh time since 1994 that lawmakers have approved a cut for the nation’s space agency, according to an analysis of NASA budget documents.Some lawmakers who represent communities with NASA field operations like Kennedy Space Center warned that the spending squeeze would hurt the nation’s program to build new space capsules and rockets to take astronauts back to the moon.  Read more

Two of the also-rans in NASA’s $500 million competition for spaceship concepts won a consolation prize Thursday: the space agency’s promise to advise them as they continue to develop their concepts with private funding.

Chicago-based PlanetSpace and Virginia-based Transformational Space Corp. would receive no NASA funding under the newly announced agreements, but they would be entitled to the agency’s feedback — an arrangement that could help keep them in the running for contracts to resupply the international space station after the space shuttles are retired in 2010.  Read more 

NASA’s Orion spacecraft hasn’t left the drawing board as yet… and already, the space agency has extended one of its missions. An agency official said Tuesday the new capsules will continue to fly to the International Space Station until 2020… four years longer than originally planned.  Read More