Orion

[JPMach]

Is it just me or does this Orion spacecraft look like a step backwards. It just seems like the boys at NASA are reverting back to the old tried and true instead of forging ahead with the latest and greatest they can think of. Sure Orion is bigger and probably has fancier gadgets and all that but....

Don't get me wrong I would love to get a nice big multi year contract making parts for the thing.

What happend to the Phasers and Warp Drives we were promised

JP

[greybeard]

Hi JP - it isn't just you. That was my first reaction to seeing the Orion, too.

What happened to the idea of reuseability, or is that built in already ?

John

[fifesmith]

I too was surprised. I think they are persuing the KISS principle. Interesting that they went with Lockheed (little in the way of manned spacecraft expereince). And since no-one has built anything like this for 30 years, I think they are going to continue to make conservative choices.

[JPMach]

They say that the re-entry vehicle will be reusable.
It just seems like such a small part of the overall piece.

I guess Orion is what you get when you put tight budget restrictions on NASA. I mean Rutan's plane looks cooler and has more reusable stuff than this doesn't it? And he's from the private sector.

JP

[greybeard]

Another point. What about the shuttle's ability to land at alternative sites in an emergency? Or was that never a realistic option ?
I presume the Orion is just a ballistic re-entry, with little control once the descent is commenced.

[Dave Y]

Originally Posted by greybeard Another point. What about the shuttle's ability to land at alternative sites in an emergency? Or was that never a realistic option ? I presume the Orion is just a ballistic re-entry, with little control once the descent is commenced.

realistically, there are only a handfull runways in the world that are long enough for the shuttle to land(canaveral, white sands, edwards, Baikonur Cosmodrome(russia), and a few others
however, it could probably land at JFK international in a pinch(longest runway is only 430 feet shorter then at canaveral/kennedy space center, but half the width)


in theory, some control of the Orion space craft descent would be possible by controlling the parachutes


this seems like a huge step backwards, it is not much removed from the mercury/gemini/apollo launch systems