Far as I know d4 is not man rated and there are no plans to do so, so eliminate that launcher. Same with Ariane. What's left?
Quote from: guckyfan on 06/11/2015 02:26 pmQuote from: kevinof on 06/11/2015 01:06 pmAnother question - How many man rated launchers are there that can support the Orion?Falcon Heavy could do it for LEO.Is it man rated?
Quote from: kevinof on 06/11/2015 01:06 pmAnother question - How many man rated launchers are there that can support the Orion?Falcon Heavy could do it for LEO.
Another question - How many man rated launchers are there that can support the Orion?
Quote from: kevinof on 06/11/2015 03:17 pmFar as I know d4 is not man rated and there are no plans to do so, so eliminate that launcher. Same with Ariane. What's left?The only reason to put an Orion in LEO is for ISS rescue and to launch an unmanned Orion to the ISS man-rating isn't relevant.
Regarding Orion as a backup to Commercial Crew service for ISS, somewhere I thought I read that the rendezvous and docking systems of Orion had been descoped, or at least deferred to a later phase, to save money. Is that true? When would an Orion capsule first be available which could actually rendezvous and dock with ISS?
Quote from: billh on 06/13/2015 07:13 pmRegarding Orion as a backup to Commercial Crew service for ISS, somewhere I thought I read that the rendezvous and docking systems of Orion had been descoped, or at least deferred to a later phase, to save money. Is that true? When would an Orion capsule first be available which could actually rendezvous and dock with ISS?With CC and Soyuz there is no need for Orion to dock with ISS. Also, the first manned flight of Orion will be 2021, assuming no delays. ISS will be decommissioned after 2024. Orion as backup is an old idea pushed by Congress that isn't going to happen.
Quote from: RonM on 06/13/2015 07:22 pmQuote from: billh on 06/13/2015 07:13 pmRegarding Orion as a backup to Commercial Crew service for ISS, somewhere I thought I read that the rendezvous and docking systems of Orion had been descoped, or at least deferred to a later phase, to save money. Is that true? When would an Orion capsule first be available which could actually rendezvous and dock with ISS?With CC and Soyuz there is no need for Orion to dock with ISS. Also, the first manned flight of Orion will be 2021, assuming no delays. ISS will be decommissioned after 2024. Orion as backup is an old idea pushed by Congress that isn't going to happen.Yes, but you didn't answer the question. Others here had raised the possibility of Orion as backup, and I was thinking there was an additional problem with the idea: no docking hardware. Do you know when, or if, Orion is supposed to have rendezvous and docking capability under the current plan?