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NASA expects to decide sometime in 2008 whether the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, the agency's space shuttle replacement, will typically splash down off the California coast or touch down on dry land when it returns from space....
...."The simple answer is we have not picked a landing mode for Orion yet. Both options are still on the table as we head into the coming year," Rick Gilbrech, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems told reporters Dec. 10.
Originally posted by FreeThinkerIdealist
I don't understand why a better designed space shuttle couldn't be made for the exact purpose of visiting the space station and carrying large cargo, designed with the idea of a future lunar runway, to which with lesser gravity and (depending on which you subscribe to) no or very little atmosphere, should be decent at taking off with minimum fuel (or set up magnetic launch systems both there on on earth to help lower fuel needed) and a powerful inboard rocket for returning to LEO.
Guess I just find it silly and a step backwards to be dropping from the sky in a capsule with a parachute instead of a controlled glide (or powered descent) to a landing on a runway. Not like those huge runways are not already there.
The Orion looks to be small, and not user friendly. Maybe the sketches don't do it justice.
Anyone else notice that the Shuttle stops in 2011, and the Orion isn't ready until 2015 ... suppose the Russians will be the only ones visiting the space station? Or do we have V5 rockets with capsules that can already meet up with the station?
Whatever happened to the replacement shuttle ideas? The X-33 by Lockheed? I know it was flawed, but still, it should be feasible to create such a vehicle. I could design a working shuttle and launch vehicle given a 1.4 billion dollar budget that was spent on it.