News - Budget Crunch Delays NASA's Moon Ship

Budget Crunch Delays NASA's Moon Ship

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2913031

NASA to Delay New Moon Spacecraft Because of Budget Constraints

By KASIE HUNT

WASHINGTON Feb 28, 2007 (AP)- NASA will delay the first manned flight
of the new spacecraft designed to take humans back to the moon because
of budget constraints, the agency's boss said Wednesday.

The craft, called the Orion, won't fly until early 2015, four to six
months later than planned, NASA administrator Michael Griffin told
lawmakers.

"We simply do not have the money available" to fly in 2014 as
originally planned, he said.

The delay is the result of a $545 million difference between President
Bush's request for the agency this year and the money Congress
included in a spending bill Bush signed this month. Lawmakers gave the
space agency the same amount of money it received in 2006.

"The net result of the decrease will be a four- to six-month delay of
the Orion crew vehicle," Griffin told the Senate Commerce Committee's
space subcommittee.

That's more time the U.S. will go without any manned spaceflight
capability the space shuttle is slated for retirement in 2010. It will
fly 13 or 14 more missions to finish the International Space Station
and maintain the Hubble space telescope.

Griffin said the gap between the shuttle's retirement and Orion's
debut raises practical and strategic concerns.

"When you don't fly for four or more years, people become stale ...
facilities degrade. It's not a good thing," he said. "Our human
spaceflight expertise will be depleted to a certain extent."

Griffin also pointed out that other countries would continue to fly
humans and cargo into space while Americans were grounded. "For the
United States not to be among them is tragic," he said. "The U.S. will
be in a position of purchasing crew and cargo services from other
countries."

The Orion is the ship designed to carry astronauts to the moon and
later to Mars. Bush announced the new manned space program in 2004,
the year after the shuttle Columbia accident that killed seven
astronauts. Bush called for a return to the moon by 2020.

Griffin said he wasn't looking to that deadline just yet. "I'm not
worried about the moon right now. I'm worried about replacing the
shuttle," he said.

Five of the crew members who flew aboard space shuttle Discovery last
December were recognized by senators at the hearing. Missing was pilot
William Oefelein, who was hasn't made a public appearance since the
arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak earlier this month on charges she tried
to kidnap and kill a woman she regarded as her rival for Oefelein's
affections.

"Clearly, she is in major trouble and clearly we failed as an
institution to recognize that she was very troubled," Griffin said
when asked about Nowak. "I don't think one incident should ever be
allowed to paint a picture for an entire group of people ... and
certainly not for our astronauts."