With the thanksgiving holiday in the US at the moment the English language spaceflight community of bloggers and mass media has gone very quiet but here is some detail on NASA’s Ares I crew launch vehicle (CLV) and Orion crew exploration vehicle (CEV) care of NASASpaceflight.com.
This, I think, UK based website clearly has some good links into the US Constellation and Shuttle programmes yet none of their writers are names I recognise from the aerospace media community. In the past I had noted that the Constellation documents the website had obtained were many months old and NASA had told me the website’s editorial team never actually spoke to the agency.
But with one individual at least participating in a Boeing telecon not so long ago and NASASpaceflight’s recent interview (well it looks more like an emailed Q&A to me) with the Ares I first-stage element manager Alex Priskos, it seems basic journalistic practice is now being followed.
Anyway, well done them in getting those insider contacts into Constellation. Either that or they have hacked into NASA’s computers!
Following my recent articles on NASA budget woes, potential delay to Shuttle orbiter Atlantis’ retirement and the US agency’s own internal newslettters highlighting problems with the CLV I am expecting to talk to NASA’s prime contractors in the next few weeks so “stand by” – as NASA’s PR officials like to say – for more info on the trials and tribulations of the people at the sharp end.
And for those of you who like lots of pictures with your spaceflight news bites I have started to post images of NASA’s new spacecraft and rockets on our forum airspace.aero. Expect lots more in the coming weeks and months
