Flight Global is reporting that NASA has stopped a study by the Aerospace Corporation concerning flight testing of the Ares I launch vehicle and its Orion crew capsule.
Rob Coppinger writes that the El Segundo, Calif.-based company had completed a review of previous NASA programs in 2005 indicating that “full-scale ground testing of launchers was key to flight-test successes in programmes from Mercury to the Space Shuttle.” The partially complete follow-on study, done last year, was designed to help NASA establish a viable ground-testing plan.
Why was the study stopped? Don’t ask Doug Cooke, who oversees the Ares project as deputy associate administrator of NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. He told Coppinger that he has no idea why the study ended. Nobody else at NASA could explain the decision, either.
0 Responses to “NASA Stops Ares I/Orion Flight Test Study”
Leave a Reply