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NASA's PR Hype About Orion Spacecraft
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
December 6, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
In a headline, “There’s your new
spacecraft, America,” the National Aeronautics and Space Administration tried
desperately to save its relevancy bringing Orion out of mothballs, when private
space companies lead the way in the next generation of space exploration. NASA put all its eggs into the Space Shuttle basket flying its first Columbia mission
carrying four astronauts Nov. 11, 1982, retiring the Shuttle program with
Atlantis’s last flight July 8, 2011.
Unlike NASA’s previous space programs starting with Mercury, Gemini and
Apollo, there was no new spacecraft to replace the Shuttle. Conceived during the Bush
administration, the Orion spacecraft was aborted from the get-go, requiring
bigger rockets at liftoff, showing less maneuverability and bringing fewer
astronauts to space. Mission
Control commentator Rob Navias touted Orion’s unmanned test flight as putting
NASA back in the game.
Signing off from Houston space control center, Orion flight director Mike
Sarafin hyped Orion’s test flight as a new breakthrough for NASA. “We challenged our best and brightest to continue to lead in space,” said Sarafin,
knowing that NASA’s best scientists have left the program for brighter future in
private space companies like Elon Musk’s Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX. Unlike Orion, that has dubious
future for manned space operations, SpaceX’s Dragon V2 and Mega-Falcon 9 rocket
hope to carry astronauts to the International Space Station in 2017 or sooner. Leading private space companies for
NASA’s 2010 Commercial Crew Integrated Capability [CCtCap] project, Space X is
far closer than its competitors in its manned spacecraft. Boeing Space System’s CST-100
capsule, Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space-plane and Blue Origin’s secret
vehicle lag way behind SpaceX.
NASA’s Orion grandstanding with its built-in obsolescence seeks to keep
U.S. government space operations relevant.
Most space experts see NASA’s Orion as largely PR hype. “While this was an unmanned mission,
we were all on board Orion,” said Sarafin practically in tears over what he
viewed as a successful test flight.
Reaching speeds of nearly 20,000-mph and withstanding a 4,000-degree entry,
Sarafin touted the accomplishment of blasting Orion highest into space since
Apollo 17 lunar-landing mission Dec. 7, 1972.
Sarafin made much about decelerating Orion from 20,000-mph to 11-mph when
it splashed down off the coast of Baja, Mexico. With a launch abort test scheduled in 2017, followed by another unmanned flight in 2018,
manned operations aren’t expected until at least 2021, if ever. Yet NASA sees Orion as leading the
way to Mars or asteroids in the future.
Getting a quick reality-check, SpaceX’s Dragon V2 manned space capsule is
scheduled or its launch abort test for Nov. 2014. “Pretty soon we’ll be left with only
two big ticket items, if you will, of the whole CCtCap program, which are the
abort tests,” said Garrett Reisman, head of SpaceX’s Commercial Crew Program. “We have a pad abort test planned
and an in-flight abort test planned,” said Reisman, years ahead of anything NASA
plans with Orion. “The pad abort
test is on track for November this year, and the in-flight abort test is
currently scheduled for January,” said Reisman, signaling that SpaceX’s manned
space operations are ahead of schedule.
No one at NASA seriously believes that Orion comes close to the
technological sophistication, space-worthiness and readiness for manned
operations as SpaceX’s Dragon V2 capsule, certainly not Orion flight director
Sarafin.
Saying NASA is “one step closer” to Orion’s manned space operations, NASA
administrator Charles Bolden Jr. shows the agency’s quiet desperation. “Day One of the Mars era,” said
Bolden, hoping to convince Congress to allocate more cash to the failing space
agency. Instead of giving NASA more
U.S. tax dollars to dole out to private space contractors like SpaceX, Congress
should fund private contractors directly.
“NASA has not specified a set number of awards under the CctCap,” NASA
officials wrote in a blog last September.
“In late August or September, the agency will select the company or
companies that will build an operational space transportation system,” putting
SpaceX first in line for more NASA funding.
NASA’s in no position to grant itself any cash for the already obsolete
Orion program. Bolden talking about
Orion going to Mars couldn’t be
more off-the-wall.
NASA’s Orion program is “one step closer” to extinction, certainly not
gearing up for manned space operations, going to Mars or distant asteroids. NASA’s program directors and
administrators should level with Congress about how the agency no longer has the
technological capability and brainpower to lead America’s space program. Funding NASA to dole out cash to
companies like SpaceX makes no sense.
Created in the wake of Sputnik, the House Committee on Science, Space and
Technology should reconsider how it allocates NASA’s budget, but, more
importantly, NASA’s future role in the nation’s space program. If private contractors like SpaceX
are the future of U.S. space exploration, then Congress should fund them
directly. Calling the Orion program “Day One of the Mars era,” Bolden should be called before
Congress to explain what he’s talking about.
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