Orion Return Capsule Could Be Stepping Stone to Commercial Crew Vehicle

Model of NASA's Orion spacecraft

I’ve been trying to puzzle out exactly what’s behind the Obama Administration’s decision to re-focus the Orion crew capsule as an ISS return capsule. Because the vehicle doesn’t take anyone to the station, NASA will still be heavily reliant upon Russian Soyuz rockets and spacecraft for crew transport.

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver shed some light on the issue in remarks to Space News:

“We will ask them to focus Orion for the government purposes on our unique requirement of crew escape,” she said, adding that Lockheed Martin would be welcome to use the Orion capsule to bid on the agency’s $6 billion commercial crew program proposed in the president’s 2011 budget.

“That would be a company decision on bidding for commercial crew technology,” she said.

So, NASA keeps capsule technology moving forward without any serious program interruptions. The agency will also be flying the vehicles on rockets that they will eventually launch crews on. And NASA will be refining autonomous rendezvous and docking as well as human-rating requirements for an eventual crew vehicle.

NASA avoids mass layoffs from the Orion program and the disruptions that would result. Meanwhile, there’s a possibility of upgrading the capsule as part of the Commercial Crew Development program. The space agency might fund a human-rated Orion along with a commercial offering, such as SpaceX’s Dragon, Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Cygnus or Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser.

The move funds work that is of interest to Bigelow Aerospace, which needs a crew transport for its private Sundancer space station. The Las Vegas company has proposed using an “Orion Lite” vehicle for that service. Bigelow is interested in using the Atlas V rocket, which would also be under consideration for NASA launches.

The approach also puts the responsibility for Orion’s future on Lockheed Martin. The company will need to decide whether to bid on the Commercial Crew program. And any bid would be considered on a competitive basis in what would likely be a four-way contest with SpaceX, Orbital Sciences and Sierra Nevada. It’s a risk for Lockheed Martin, but the approach keeps Orion alive and gets NASA to fund part of the work.

A very interesting approach. It’s a compromise that might actually fly.