NASA has awarded Lockmart a long-term Orion production contract. Cost plus, natch.
This isn’t really a commitment. I’m sure the contract has a cancellation clause with a generous penalty. It’s primarily theater for Bridenstine to buy off the Colorado and Texas delegations, particularly after he pissed the latter off with his award of the lander to Marshall.
[Evening update]
Link fixed, sorry.
And note that Ted Cruz loves the Orion deal and is taking credit for it.
By the way, the link is to Zimmerman piece on martian glaciers.
OT: A good summary of the Mann suit in todays wsj by Bill McGurn, including references to our host and the complete CEI/Sandusky quote that started it all.
I agree with Robert Z. this appears to be a bone Bridenstein has thrown to the congressional delegations as a peace offering. There isn’t any actual federal dollars earmarked for this yet, but that may end up being just a rubber stamp. OR it might be possible Congress only funds 1/2 of the proposed contract.
Once SpaceX or Blue Origin makes a lunar landing, this is all going to vanish quickly.
I suspect a better than 50/50 chance that these new Orions (if built) end up in children’s science museums. Probably for most of the museums, their most expensive exhibit donated for free.
It’s good to see NASA being shown for what it has always been. Too bad for them the private sector is showing them how it should be done.
Rand I wished you’d finished your second book, the one about SLS. I have a new title for it: “There’s No Place Like Home: A story of a big rocket that couldn’t.”
I was never working on a book about SLS, though Rick Boozer wrote one.
I meant the one about SLS as roadblock book…
That was a Kickstarter project, but not a book. It ended up becoming a long essay that I published. It could be published as a book, I guess, but it would have to be reformatted.