NASA delays first crewed flight of Orion capsule to Mars

Nasa said it was still aiming for a 2018 test of both SLS and Orion, and had circled April 2023 as a “no later than” date for the first human test. And he said it will eventually “enable humanity to set foot on the Red Planet, and we are committed to building the spacecraft and other elements necessary to make this a reality”.

The first manned test flight of NASA’s new deep-space Orion capsule faces a likely two-year delay until 2023 because of development and budget concerns, officials with the U.S. space agency said on Wednesday.

The Orion capsule is one of NASA’s top priorities, but the Government Accountability Office has said the agency’s plan for human exploration of space is plagued by “inconsistent and unrealistic schedule goals”, as well as “significant technical and funding issues,” according to the Washington Post.

For EM-2, Orion will carry up to four astronauts into lunar orbit, hopefully to check out an asteroid or boulder that has already been brought back by a robotic spacecraft-a much-debated project.

The current plan had called for a crewed mission in 2021 to test the craft, following a second unmanned flight in 2018.

“The Orion Program has done incredible work, progressing every day and meeting milestones to prepare for our next missions”, said William Gerstenmaier, the agency’s associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA Headquarters.

The agency pledged $6.77 billion to fund Orion development efforts from October 2015 through the spacecraft’s initial crewed mission by April 2023 following the program’s Key Decision Point C review, NASA said Thursday. The capsule will blast off atop a megarocket still under development by NASA, called SLS (S-L-S) for Space Launch System. It will be the first time astronauts have left low-Earth orbit since the Apollo missions. “We’re committing to this funding and readiness level to stay on the journey we’ve outlined to get to Mars“. Nasa admistrator Charles Bolden wrote in a WIRED op-ed recently that: “Had Congress adequately funded President Obama’s Commercial Crew proposal, we could have been making final preparations this year to once again launch American astronauts to space from American soil aboard American spacecraft”.

While a preliminary test from December of last year was quite successful, they will still use the data to try to keep the real mission on track for the deadline.