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NASA reports an Orion fix and updates Moon-lander planning
· New York time
NASA has updated plans for lunar landers and resolved a long-running Orion spacecraft issue, Ars Technica reports. The developments concern central components of the agency's effort to return astronauts to the Moon. The report quotes a confident statement: “We have the mandate, we have the resources, and the support from our stakeholders.” That expresses institutional backing; it is not the same thing as a completed mission or a guarantee that every later milestone will arrive on schedule. For the United States' lunar program, progress on spacecraft problems and lander planning matters because the pieces must work together. A successful individual fix can be important without making the remaining coordination disappear. Spaceflight has a way of making the phrase “just one more thing” carry an extraordinary engineering budget. An ordinary office can postpone a meeting when two calendars disagree. A lunar mission requires a more demanding arrangement among hardware, operations and time. The update provides a basis for following the next milestones rather than declaring the whole undertaking finished. Resolving a persistent issue is real progress. So is making the plan more workable. Neither requires pretending that the Moon has become an easy destination, even if the presentation software can now reach it with a very smooth transition.
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