Leaders of NASA's Constellation return-to-the-Moon programme are describing 2008 as the year of the preliminary design review (PDR) for the Orion crew exploration vehicle and its booster, the Ares I crew launch vehicle.
The agency expects to test fire the Ares I upper stage Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne J-2X engine next month, produce the first upper stage test articles in February for testing at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center and during 2008 conduct the PDRs to lead on to the detailed design work and subsequent critical design reviews.
Responding to Flight's report of slips in the PDR for the Ares I first-stage, on a 10 December programme update NASA's Constellation manager Jeffrey Hanley said: "We are currently integrating our schedules. Any schedule anybody has...does not mean the overall programme is slipping."
Due to two consecutive requested fiscal year budgets not being approved, the US space agency has put back its first manned flight date for Orion and Ares to March 2015 from 2014. The outcome of the yet-to-be-approved FY2008 budget request that should fund NASA to 30 September next year will determine if that flight date is delayed further.
Hanley also explains that, contrary to media reports, there had been no final decision on whether Orion would land on water or land. He describes the baseline to be water as that was safer and avoided the need for what he describes as "1,500lb [680kg]" of mass for the airbags. He adds: "We were always trying to land in water for the first few missions until the guidance is proved," and says that "in a nominal landing we'll land close to the [recovery] ship".
Source: Flight International
