NASA's Next Lunar Voyage May Occur 'Before This Decade is Out'

With the design of the Space Launch System finally approved and the development of the Orion Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle proceeding, NASA officials, in consultation with aerospace contractors, have begun to map pit a test schedule.

According to NASA Spaceflight the major news is that the first manned flight of the Orion has moved forward from 2021 to 2019 or perhaps even 2018.Lockheed Martin had proposed a manned flight of the Orion around the moon in 2016, but NASA seems to have settled on the slightly later, albeit before this decade is out date. If all goes well, the first American astronauts to fly on a NASA spacecraft will loop around the moon, much like Apollo 13 did, close to the 50th anniversaries of the Apollo 8 lunar orbital mission or the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The lunar voyage would be preceded by a number of unmanned test flights, the first occurring no earlier than December, 2013 or perhaps even early 2014. The advent of the evolved 130 metric ton SLS, originally scheduled for 2032, will likely be advanced forward by "many years."

The schedule does, of course, depend on the promised budget being delivered and no difficult and unexpected technical problems arising. However the schedule is said to have plenty of margins built in and is more "realistic" than that for the Constellation program that envisioned a lunar landing in 2019.

What happens after the lunar voyage is unclear. The Obama space plan designates 2025 as the year a mission to an Earth approaching asteroid will occur, but many inside and outside of NASA are still pressing for a return to the Moon to occur on or before that date. The asteroid objective will be most likely reevaluated by the next administration, which many political pundits currently expect to take office in January, 2013.

Ironically, the NASA lunar mission may not be the first to venture beyond low Earth orbit in the coming decade. Space Adventures, the company that has arranged for numerous visits to the International Space Station by the well heeled and adventurous, is attempting to be together a circumlunar voyage in conjunction with the Russian Space Agency. The private lunar trip would consist of a Russian cosmonaut pilot and two paying passengers in a Soyuz. One unidentified customer has already contracted to shell out the $100 million plus ticket. The Space Adventure voyage around the moon awaits the addition of the second passenger.

In any event, a firm schedule, if it can be adhered to, will mitigate against attempts to kill the SLS program. The idea of a voyage to the moon, "before this decade is out," is not only beguiling, but has a certain precedence.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly.