credit NASA / caption: This manifest is more revealing than one would hope
Notice anything different about the image of the slide above, compared to most other Constellation programme schedules? It is the complete lack of any milestone for the Ares V cargo launch vehicle and its Altair lunar lander, all the way out to 2020
This might seem like a silly oversight but this slide is from the pre-proposal conference for the Exploration ground launch services contract that will be awarded in 2010. Flightglobal spoke to NASA about this and you can read the agency's response in this story here
The Obama NASA budget request looked bad for Ares V with $25 million in FY2011 when Bush's 2008 budget request gave it more than ten times that in that year. Then the conceptual design contract was put on hold for the Review of US human spaceflight plans. If that wasn't bad enough for the CaLV the EGLS slide indicates that Ares V will not be seen anytime soon. Some might see that as an indication that Ares I's future is bleak, as the two rockets are linked as part of a 10-15-year (2005 to 2020) Moon return architecture. Only time will tell
There has also been mention in the blogosphere of potential changes for Ares I-Y. The change is clear in this chart above. Note the March 2014 date for Ares I-Y when the 2 February 2009 Multi-Programme Integrated Milestone chart you can find on the web has the date as third quarter calendar year 2013, a nine month slip
on July 9, 2009 3:30 PM | Reply
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the end of the Ares-5 project seems inevitable!
the 5.5-segments SRB can't work well as expected and a recent NASA analysis say that its core-stage tank can't survive the HEAT of SIX engines!
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on July 9, 2009 5:01 PM | Reply
It is now time to turn to something more affordable, like the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle / Shuttle-C or like the NLS / Direct concept.
on July 9, 2009 7:18 PM | Reply
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"Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle / Shuttle-C or like the NLS / Direct concept"
ALL these options/designs are FLAWED or unsuitable for the purpose
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on July 9, 2009 10:31 PM | Reply
It never said what the scope of Exploration Ground Launch Services was, but EGLS is a contract with USA. Maybe Halliburton is picking up the Ares V.
Not that anyone expected a heavy lift vehicle, or anything for that matter, to come out of their taxes & inflation. They just enslave themselves to feel good.
on July 10, 2009 6:30 AM | Reply
Say it ain't so! Ares V is more important than Ares I for Constellation. Can Direct even launch a TLI stage big enough to work with the current Orion capsule?
on July 10, 2009 11:59 AM | Reply
Obama and congress don't want it so when will we be going back to the moon in style? Maybe the next half of this century? And forget Mars.
There is nothing around that equals the wish to beat your enemy as a matter of prestige in a Cold War. There is no such cause left. So manned spaceflight is nothing more than an offspring of political need. At present western politicians think there is no need.
So it's pretty clear that in the long run only unmanned projects will be deemed useful. Manned spaceflight will become a thing of the past only to be enjoyed in retrospect: 'GOSH, DID WE DO THAT?'
on July 10, 2009 8:57 PM | Reply
The latest Side-mount shuttle concept could place nearly 99 tonnes of net weight into LEO and 48 tonnes into lunar orbit. And the heavy lift vehicles could be ready for full scale testing by 2014. We need to do this!