Free Republic

For more than three years, NASA chief Michael Griffin has maintained that the safest, most reliable and affordable way to return astronauts to the moon is on the Ares I, a rocket he helped design from parts of the space shuttle. Alternatives, he insisted, such as modified military rockets, were simply not capable of carrying humans to the moon and beyond. But interviews, as well as documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, indicate that military rockets can lift astronauts safely into space -- and to the moon -- for billions less and possibly sooner than NASA's current designs. While it's...

Alliant Techsystems, Lockheed Martin, and Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne have presented to NASA an oral summary of their proposal for the Ares I Upper Stage. The proposal has been delivered in stages over the last month and culminated with the submittal of the cost volume last week. The three companies have developed a complementary relationship, leveraging their strong experience and capabilities on NASA Human Space Flight programs to provide the Ares I project a springboard to minimize program costs, maintain aggressive development and test schedules, and reduce the technical risk going forward. "We have been preparing for this procurement for...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The name of the new vehicle that NASA hopes will take astronauts back to the moon was supposed to be hush-hush until next week. But apparently U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams, floating 220 miles above Earth at the international space station, didn't get the memo. Williams, through no fault of his own, let it slip Tuesday that the new vehicle's name is Orion. "We've been calling it the crew exploration vehicle for several years, but today it has a name — Orion," Williams said, taping a message in advance for the space agency that was transmitted accidentally...