VIDEO: Technology choices forced Orion 10-month PDR delay

credit: Lockheed Martin / caption: Orion's PDR is now mid-2009 instead of November 2008

Speaking at the 3rd International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) conference in Rome two of Lockheed Martin's Orion team members, Michael Saemisch and Megahn Buchanan, gave a presentation on how military aircraft vulnerability techniques were being used to determine risk for NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle

I asked why the 10-month delay for the preliminary design review and Saemisch explained that technology choices, including for voltage, had forced the decision and that a preference for a composite capsule by NASA administrator Michael Griffin had been rejected during the course of that decision making

click through to the extended portion of this blog post to watch the video the IAASS Lockheed Martin presentation and Q&A afterward