So NASAWatch tells us that the US space agency is dropping references to the Vision for space Exploration and is instead using the phrase US space exploration policy
Whether it is called VSE or US-SEP or is a very different programme, NASA is still not getting enough funding to do everything that the US Congress wants it to do
The memos detailing the Constellation programme’s Ares I crew launch vehicle and Orion crew exploration vehicle schedule changes and the retraction of that information, to be found here and here, are an indication of the ongoing struggle the agency and its contractors are having with developing the transportation system they said would be safe, simple and soon
What I am not sure about with the NASASpaceflight.com test delay related figure of a $700 million shortfall is, whether that is the monies that NASA associate administrator for exploration, Richard Gilbrech, has already asked Congress for to bring the first flight date of Ares/Orion back to September 2014, or if it is additional money. I suspect it is the latter
NASA administrator Michael Griffin, in his remarks to the Space Transportation Association’s (STA) 22 January breakfast briefing in DC, didn’t shed any light on whether that is so and neither did his answer to questions regarding the memos. But we do now know that his agency intends to slip the dates for its Ares and Orion test flights; how and when Griffin allows that new truth to be communicated is the only obstacle to us getting a fuller picture
I will be attending the 3rd NASA/AIAA space exploration conference that is being held in Denver later this month, so expect a lot more about the new schedules to emerge from that
Meanwhile, for a more thorough comment on Griffin’s STA speech see Jon Goff’s response here
