Grey Hautaluoma/Stephanie Schierholz
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668/4997
grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov
stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov
Lynnette Madison/Josh Byerly
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
lynnette.b.madison@nasa.gov
bill.j.byerly@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 08-205
NASA TO REALIGN CONSTELLATION PROGRAM MILESTONES
WASHINGTON -- In a news conference Monday, NASA managers discussed how
the agency will be adjusting the budget, schedule and technical
performance milestones for its Constellation Program to ensure the
first crewed flight of the Ares I rocket and Orion crew capsule in
March 2015.
The Constellation Program is developing the spacecraft and systems,
including the Ares I and Ares V rockets, the Orion crew exploration
vehicle, and the Altair lunar lander, that will take astronauts to
the International Space Station after the retirement of the space
shuttle, and eventually return humans to the moon.
"Since the program's inception, NASA has been working an aggressive
plan to achieve flight capability before our March 2015 target," said
Rick Gilbrech, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems
Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We are still
confident the Constellation Program will make its first flight to the
International Space Station on or before that date. Our new path
forward better aligns our project schedules with our existing funds
to ensure we can address the unplanned challenges that always arise
when developing a complex flight system."
NASA will retire the space shuttles in 2010 and had established a goal
of achieving flight capability for the Constellation Program before
2015 to narrow the gap in America's human spaceflight capability. As
such, NASA aligned Constellation contracts and internal milestones
against a date much earlier than March 2015 to incentivize an earlier
flight capability.
As part of an annual budget process that evaluates the program's
budget, schedule and technical performance milestones, NASA will be
working with its contractors to discuss how program plans and
internal milestones should be adjusted -- a process that will take
several months and require contract modifications and associated
milestone realignments. Such adjustments are not unusual for a
complex development program as work matures and schedules and
resources are aligned.
For more information about the Constellation Program, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/constellation
