NASA moon capsule plagued by budget problems

Tag : Phone Set

But the agency's own hurry-up plan to get the job done even earlier— with a first crew launch by 2013 — will "very likely"be changed during meetings this week in Houston, said Doug Cooke,NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration.

"We're probably going to have to move our target date," Cooke saidin a phone interview. An actual astronaut moon landing is still setfor 2020. Orion initially will just orbit Earth before attempting amore complicated moon launch that also will involve unmannedrockets. Cooke acknowledged the slipped launch target date during aninterview about an internal NASA report leaked to the website, NasaWatch. The document shows that the space agency's overall moon planhas encountered financial and technical problems, which NASA saysit can overcome.
 
The leaked report reflects typical problems of a program this earlyin the running, Cooke said. "What you're seeing is sausage-making," he said. "I'm reallysatisfied with the work that's getting done." The 117-page report, posted Wednesday at nasawatch.com, shows an$80 million cost overrun this year for just one motor and a dozendifferent technical problems that the space agency put in the toprisk zone, meaning the problems are considered severe. The reportput the program's financial performance in that category.
 
Technical problems included software that may not be developed ontime, the heat shield, a dangerous level of shaking during launch,and a hard-to-open hatch door. The report also said NASA's planswould shortchange astronauts' daily water needs, giving them onlytwo liters a day when medical experts say they need at least 2.5liters. The report showed technical problems in operations for Orion nearlydoubling from May to July, with 24 items now on the most worrisomelist.
 
Outside experts say it's too early to be too worried, but they havesome concerns. "It doesn't surprise me that there are these kinds of pains giventhe early stage (of development) and the long time since we didanything like this," said John Logsdon, director of space policy atGeorge Washington University. "NASA is trying to do this withinadequate and uncertain funding."