"Obama's NASA transition team also asked agency officials to investigate how much it would cost and how long it would take to build a smaller version of Orion and human-rate an Atlas 5 or Delta 4 expendable rocket to serve as its launcher."
I hope Alabama is salivating at the idea of replacing Ares with Delta 4.
Obama is right to question whether NASA can really field the Ares as planned; last I read, it didn't look good. But we will need a heavy lifter, so I hope the Delta idea is a stop-gap. Remember, we will have to depend on the Russians for as long as it takes to get it working, and who needs that?
ReplyDeleteAnd I like the idea of funding "the harnessing of space-based solar power for use on Earth."