Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Wiser
Congress, though, insisted in the 2010 NASA Authorization Act that Orion be capable of backing up the private sector if they can't handle the mission, and Lockheed-Martin (Orion's prime contractor) has said that they can man-rate an existing rocket by 2014 if they got the go-ahead for to do just that, and to have Earth orbit flight test of Orion as well.
Lockheed-Martin, btw, has indicated that they can fly an Orion Asteroid Mission in 2019. If that's the case, then lunar exploration gets speeded up.
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America has one significant advantage over all its competitors in space with the possible exception of Russia. This would be the size and technological capability of its commercial aerospace and space industry, which to an extent is a legacy of the Cold War and the Military-Industrial Complex. A similar and more politicaly controlled space industry exists in Russia, but if you think America is having a hard time financing its space projects on its own just imagine how hard it is for Russia. Although other countries have space programes, they are to a varying degree politicaly controlled and funded.