NASA officials say the agency is still reviewing the cost and scope of the proposed unmanned Orion demonstration in the context of newly enacted legislation that calls for development by 2016 of a space capsule and heavy-lift rocket capable of taking astronauts beyond low Earth orbit.But John Stevens, Lockheed Martin vice president of business development for the Orion program, said the Denver-based company simply doesn't have time to wait for NASA to finish its review.
"If we're going to meet the 2016 flight date specified in the authorization bill, we have to have a test flight in 2013," he told Space News Nov. 23, referring to language in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 that U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law Oct. 11. "So we've put our money down on this so we can reserve the launch slot for a 2013 test, because that's what's required to meet the 2016 date that Congress has set."