(July, 17 2008) – Money problems may force NASA to abandon its ambitious goal of having a new moon spaceship ready by 2013, a top space agency official told The Associated Press.
The official said the agency should still be able to meet its public commitment to test launch astronauts in the first Orion capsule by March 2015 unless national budget stalemates continue, but Doug Cooke, NASA's deputy associate administrator for Exploration, said the agency's own hurry-up plan to get the job done even earlier with a first crew launch by 2013, will "very likely" be changed during meetings this week in Houston.
Cooke says they'll probably have to move their target date.
An actual astronaut moon landing is still set for 2020. Orion initially will just orbit Earth before attempting a more complicated moon launch that also will involve unmanned rockets.
Cooke acknowledged the slipped launch target date during an interview about an internal NASA report leaked to the Web site, NASA Watch.
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