Due to budgeting issues and certain design drawbacks, NASA has recently announced that it will move the launch of the Orion capsule – originally set to head to launch in the summer of 2021 – to 2023. The space agency hopes that Orion, anticipated to become the first manned spacecraft to go into deep space beyond the moon, will eventually pave the way for a crew landing on Mars in the early 2030s.
NASA Delays Orion Capsule Mission by Two Years!
NASA has already made a multi-billion dollar investment into the project, but the space agency is planning on investing an additional $6.77 billion between this year and the year of the launch. The extra funds will allow NASA to produce two more capsules in order to send a crewed test flight, scheduled for April 2023, before an official manned mission.
NASA is Committed to a Mars Landing
Charles Bolden, NASA’s administrator, declared in a statement that Orion is a key piece of the flexible architecture that will enable humanity to eventually set foot on Mars. The agency is committed to constructing the spacecraft, along with the other equipment that is needed, in order to make this dream a reality. However, there are still factors that need to be straightened out, such as management issues, technical drawbacks and budgetary problems (this is the most expensive project in U.S. space exploration history) before the agency’s plan can be carried out safely and efficiently.
Orion’s Next Step
Currently, the plan is to send Orion to space in December 2018; the unmanned spacecraft will be carried by the $7 billion Space Launch System Rocket (its launch was also delayed by a year). Orion will fly in lunar orbit before moving on to meet with a boulder selected robotically from the surface of an asteroid. From there, it will be set into orbit, farther from the moon.
At the moment, there is already an ongoing debate about whether or not Orion can meet its April 2023 launch dates, prompting the agency to conduct a technical review of the capsule. NASA, however, remains optimistic and declares that its engineers are working on the possibility of launching Orion earlier rather than later.
