NASA’s Orion spacecraft will be the first crewed flight to explore the depths of space. This is the first flight to carry people on board in a journey beyond the moon.
The launch of the spaceship has been delayed to 2023, according to NASA. The agency spent nearly $7 billion on this project. Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator, said that their work is progressing and soon humans could be traveling anywhere in our solar system.
The agency said that the Orion spacecraft is a key piece of NASA which will enable humanity to travel much further than they ever could, and even to set foot on Mars or other near planets. NASA are committed to building Orion as soon as possible in order to make this a reality.
The deadline was pushed forward from 2012 to 2023 because NASA miscalculated some potential issues that arose as the project progressed. Now the agency is prepared to proceed in making the final readjustments that would allow the spacecraf to launch safely into space.
Among the complications were financial issues, the inability to simulate the ship’s flight, software development and other small hitches and glitches. The biggest obstacle, however, remained the budget issues.
NASA claims that for the last couple of years their funds were running short. The president’s budgetary recommendations seemed more than enough when the project was launched, but as work progressed, Orion had to face the constraints of real life. Thanks to the unhappy situation, NASA was forced to procrastinate for almost two years.
Budget issues aside, once Orion will be finished, a team of four lucky astronauts will embark on a journey into space. The state-of-the-art rockets of Orion are so powerful they will be able to propel humans to nearby planets, such as Mars or Venus.
The spaceship underwent a test back in 2014. The empty space machine orbited twice around the planet and then landed somewhere in the ocean. And three years from now, NASA planned another test flight.
Orion will be launched from Florida, via the Space Launch System, which is a powerful rocket that is currently under construction.
A Republican Congressman criticized the Obama Administration, which has cut the budget that is usually allocated to NASA. He claimed that there should be no need to worry, for the Congress always chosen to fund NASA more than they would with other respected agencies or institutions. There is no doubt that the Congress will help NASA this time too.
Photo Credits wikipedia
