We'd be flying the X-33 pretty soon if it had. What a drag.
So we're going to go back to putting Astronauts into space using old Redstone missiles from the '50s. How impossibly lamer can it get?
Posted on 10/29/2008 12:40:44 AM PDT by B-Chan
A former chairman of the House science committee told Brevard County leaders Monday that NASA’s next rocket is “on the chopping block” and that a new administration may abandon the Ares I as successor to the space shuttle.
The next president may look instead to use military rockets to launch NASA astronauts, said Robert Walker, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania who, as a Washington-based lobbyist, represents Brevard County.
Walker told county commissioners; U.S. Reps. Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, and Dave Weldon, R-Indialantic; and representatives of the local aerospace community that the word in Washington and at recent space conferences was “that Ares I could be on the chopping block.”
Afterward, in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, he elaborated: “The discussion I am hearing in the space community is that Ares will certainly be reviewed by the next administration.”
Walker’s assessment comes amid new reports of the rocket’s technical woes.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.orlandosentinel.com ...
In my opinion, the Shaft should be canceled and the job of boosting the crewed Orion spacecraft into orbit contracted out to private industry using privately-developed launch vehicles. In my opinion, the SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy, which can lift 28,000 kg to orbit (Ref: 1965 Saturn V booster payload to orbit = 118,000 kg) at about $2K per kg of payload, would be an ideal replacement.
Note: I am not a rocket scientist, but I read a lot.
We'd be flying the X-33 pretty soon if it had. What a drag.
So we're going to go back to putting Astronauts into space using old Redstone missiles from the '50s. How impossibly lamer can it get?
I guess that's why they had several failures before they finally had a measure of success.
I would place my bets with Rutan before Space X.
Eliminate the Department of Education and the HUD, also halve Congressional office budgets and use the cheapest toilet paper in the White. Give the money to the taxpayers and NASA.
Ths sounds like a convenient rationale to cancel the progrm and divert the ‘savings” into social and educational programs. The bottomless pit of entitlement spending will consume the country in future Administrations.
Be that as it may, SpaceX has a vehicle in orbit right now. Scaled does not, nor will it during the foreseeable future.
As for the flight failures, hey, rockets blow up. That’s why you test them and keep testing them until they don’t. The last one flew like a dream.
For the non-space-savvy: Ares I (aka “the Shaft”)
Shaft is his name. Shaft is his game. Can ya dig it?
The Ares I isn’t the whole Constellation program. I support the idea of building the Ares V — a Saturn V-class heavy lift booster. The Ares I, however, is more a jobs program than a spacecraft design.
What’s the white rocket plan
That keeps the sweet jobs for the workin’ man?
SHAFT
(Damn right)
What can’t lift Orion from this ball
But’s loved by LockMart Thiokol?
SHAFT
(NASA Ares I)
A sad pathetic bird
And no one really loves it but its mother...
(Mike Griffin)
They say that Shaft is a big piece of
SHUT YO MOUTH
I’m just talkin’ ‘bout the Shaft
AND YOU CAN’T QUIT IT
Unfortunately, I think the risk is pretty high that the entire Constellation program will be canceled to get more money for the socialist welfare state. We will pay the Russians for access to the ISS and the US moon/mars efforts will go back between the covers of magazines and books.
Ain’t I clean, bad machine
Super cool, super mean
Dealin’ good, for The Man.
Superfly, here I stand.
“In my opinion, the SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy, which can lift 28,000 kg to orbit (Ref: 1965 Saturn V booster payload to orbit = 118,000 kg) at about $2K per kg of payload, would be an ideal replacement.”
Yes, let private enterprise do it efficiently, the opposite of the government approach.
I hope SpaceX continues to succeed, I really like its approach.
“He quickly found out that they didn’t even keep a spreadsheet (let along a database) to keep track of the weight of all the parts in order to know the weight of the overall craft.”
Nonsense. In fact, the failures had nothing to do with weight, but were design flaws (since corrected) in both cases. In one, separation didn’t occur cleanly. In another, third stage fuel slosh caused oscillation, now solved with baffles.
The last shot made orbit on the third Falcon 1 flight, far beyond anything Rutan has tried so far. SpaceX has a full flight schedule already lined up for the next two years or so. It’s also working on a human-rated module.
LOL
That’s okay, as long as James Hansen’s neck is safe.
Can’t we put Ayres in Ares and send him to the moon or sumpin’.
Bump
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