NASA Orion Spaceship Blog

NASA has issued a request for proposals for Ares I mobile launcher construction. Ares I is the rocket that will transport the Orion crew exploration vehicle and its crew and cargo to low Earth orbit. The mobile launcher proposals are due to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 6, 2007.

The request for proposals states the procurement approach for obtaining the mobile launcher system. The mobile launcher will be used as a platform to assemble, test and service Ares I in existing facilities, transport the rocket to the pad, and support launches.  Read more

NASA has chosen new leadership for its human lunar exploration program and awarded a $1.8 billion contract for development of the first stage rocket that will propel the spacecraft that succeeds the space shuttle.

Richard “Rick” Gilbrech will replace Scott “Doc” Horowitz as the space agency’s associate administrator of the exploration systems mission directorate, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said.

Horowitz, a former astronaut, announced his decision earlier this summer to leave NASA by Oct. 1.  Read more

Alliant Techsystems Inc., the only maker of reusable solid-rocket motors for U.S. space shuttles, won a $1.8 billion contract from NASA for the first stage of the Ares I rocket.

The new contract replaces a temporary agreement in place since last year. The award covers five ground static-test motors, two ground vibration-test articles and four flight-test stages and runs through Dec. 31, 2014, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said in a statement today.

The Ares I is the rocket that will lift the Orion spacecraft, which will replace the current shuttle fleet, into low Earth orbit. Alliant Chief Executive Officer Daniel Murphy said Aug. 2 he expected the award, and at the time he put the value at more than $1.5 billion.   Read more

NASA has issued a request for proposals for Ares I mobile launcher construction. Ares I is the rocket that will transport the Orion crew exploration vehicle and its crew and cargo to low Earth orbit. The mobile launcher proposals are due to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 6, 2007.

The request for proposals states the procurement approach for obtaining the mobile launcher system. The mobile launcher will be used as a platform to assemble, test and service Ares I in existing facilities, transport the rocket to the pad, and support launches. Read more

NASA has reviewed 10 years of space flights and found no evidence to back up allegations that astronauts boarded a space shuttle and a Russian Soyuz spacecraft drunk, the U.S. space agency’s boss said on Wednesday.

The agency was investigating every flight involving shuttles, the Soyuz and the T-38 trainer jets flown by astronauts, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told reporters.

“Right now, we’ve gone back 10 years and we can’t even find where it would be a possibility there was crew under the influence on either a Soyuz or a shuttle,” he said.

The claim emerged last month in a report by a panel of health experts who had been asked to check on the astronaut corps’ health and screening policies in the aftermath of the arrest of a former astronaut, Lisa Nowak, accused of stalking a love rival.  Read more

A new space shuttle tile inspection method devised by Ames Research Center that uses wireless scanners that relay information to a computer database is replacing manual inspection, NASA announced Aug. 7.

Technicians have used six new scanners to look for cracks and other imperfections in some of the 24,000 tiles that cover shuttle Endeavour, as the orbiter is prepared for launch from Kennedy Space Center Aug. 8 on mission STS-118.

In the past, workers at Kennedy visually analyzed tiles and measured dings and cracks with hand-held scales. The new method is faster and more accurate, NASA says. Data on the depth and volume of cracks, as well as their locations, are wirelessly transmitted to a computer database.  Read more

Discussing a recent medical review, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said today he believes anecdotal allegations of alcohol abuse among some unnamed astronauts were “inflammatory” and not credible based on his own personal experience with the men and women who risk their lives on the high frontier. “I personally believe,” he said, “that at the end of the day, their charges will be determined to be either ancient or unfounded or both.” But in a wide-ranging interview with CBS News, Griffin said the allegations were serious enough to warrant a thorough review by NASA’s director of Safety and Mission Assurance and that if any alcohol-related incidents are confirmed, “the consequences will be severe.”  Read more

Even as space shuttle Endeavour awaited its scheduled Wednesday launch from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, NASA officials were showing off the future Monday a mile and a half away.

Pad 39B is where an Orion capsule perched on an Ares I rocket is supposed to launch in 2014, kicking off the Constellation program that will return man to the moon.

NASA’s aging shuttle fleet is not scheduled for retirement until September 2010, but the agency, worried about losing its skilled work force in the interim, has not waited to start the transition. The first test flight of an Ares rocket is scheduled for April 2009.  Read more

There are some reports and rumors circulating that NASA has decided to redesign the Orion spacecraft to land in water only - and not on land with airbags.

According to a short statement from NASA PAO to NASAWatch.com/SpaceRef.com - one corroborated with ESMD Deputy AA Doug Cooke): “NASA has not abandoned the concept of land re-entries. The decision has not been made.”   Read more

NASA’s Constellation Program – including the deployment of the Orion crew vehicle replacing the space shuttle – will first be assigned to International Space Station flights, then propel humans and cargo to the Moon. Expeditionary missions to Mars and beyond will follow.

But there’s ongoing discussion of mounting a piloted mission to an asteroid – a voyage by astronauts to a near-Earth object, termed NEO for short. These proponents feel certain of the scientific payoff from reaching, first-hand, an asteroid – perhaps even becoming able to exploit these chunks of celestial flotsam to further humankind’s plunge into the cosmos.

Space technologists argue that a NEO trip could be a valuable shakeout of people, equipment, and procedures prior to hurling astronauts beyond the Moon to the distant dunes of Mars.  Read more