LockMart pulls 600 engineers off Orion

[docm]

Ouch....

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2010/06/ ... -contract/

(Long)

Orion becomes a liability as Lockheed Martin pull 600 engineers off the contract

June 6th, 2010 by Chris Bergin

Orion’s role of transporting US astronauts into space has been reduced to little more than an assumption it may one day be involved in human space exploration, after contractor Lockheed Martin effectively washed its hands of the project due to fears relating to termination liability. With key procurements cancelled, the Denver-based company ‘moved’ 600 engineers off the project, effectively leaving the vehicle in limbo.
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[rcsplinters]

Interesting read. I'm guessing Congress is going to start yelling contempt even louder as that pretty much impedes progress on Constellation in 2010 without their permission.

This situation is rapidly degrading into pure politics and posturing for NASA's bank account. I'm guessing chaos will continue until a leader emerges, whether that's congress, the administration or someone within NASA. The current situation is worse than anything the Augustine report seemed to anticipate.

 

[sftommy]

Constellation, Ares I, it's all ending. I've seen no sign on the administrations part of any major deviation from this position. Without the support of the administration, even with congressional funding, development will lag even more than during the underfunded Bush years.

The politicians supporting Constellation sound space-issue-ignorant every-time I hear them speak. Several would be better served to at least read Space.com once a day (I'm not naming names).

The skilled work forces NASA has assembled for the two major canceled missions (shuttle and Constellation) will have to compete for private sector jobs, with private sector benefits. These 600 Engineers coming off Orion will be needed by that private sector (probably some of the same private sector corporations they're already working for). It may take time to transition but how many of us have friends still laid off from the recession?

Uncertainty is the enemy. Congress needs vote it one way or the other and give everyone in NASA and Corporate America that final certainty about where we're going here.

 

[steve82]

But if they are taking 600 engineers off Orion, it means there are still 2,400 engineers on Orion. If there is a continuing resolution, which is likely, the project could continue on through CDR next spring, which means Orion will have an approved spacecraft design based on released engineering to NASA HSF specs. This will be long before the RFP is even out for commercial crew transport and likely a year or so before that contract is even awarded.

 

[voyager4d]

I can't understand why it is even nessary to have that many engineers working on Orion.
Sounds very expensive, when you compare it to SpaceX. They have only 1000 employees in total, and they have build 2 rockets (Falcon 1 & 5), and are 99% complete on a flight ready version of there space capsule, Dragon.

 

[sftommy]

Currently, the Orion capsule has no merit borne out of necessity.
No unique capability it would bring to our space efforts.
No lunch vehicle clearly in development.

How does one justify this investment?

 

[neutrino78x]

I can't understand why it is even nessary to have that many engineers working on Orion.
Sounds very expensive, when you compare it to SpaceX. They have only 1000 employees in total, and they have build 2 rockets (Falcon 1 & 5), and are 99% complete on a flight ready version of there space capsule, Dragon.

Exactly, that's why commercial spaceflight is the future. Rockets going up every day, to private space stations and private space industrial parks.

--Brian

 

[RVHM]

Currently, the Orion capsule has no merit borne out of necessity.
No unique capability it would bring to our space efforts.
No lunch vehicle clearly in development.

How does one justify this investment?

Thank God we have a dinner vehicle then.