Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin stands on the lunar surface during the first moon landing in 1969. (Apollo 11/NASA)
China has announced plans to send an unmanned rocket to the moon in 2013, an effort to further the country’s ambitious space program ……..
If successful, China’s probe would be the first craft to land on the moon as part of a mission since the Soviets managed it in the 1970s. The country also said it plans to land a man on the moon, a feat only achieved by the United States, most recently in 1972, the AFP noted.
Neither the Russians nor the U.S. is currently capable of landing a man on the moon. Since the end of the space shuttle era, NASA’s has focused its eyes on a new spacecraft for manned exploration of space, the Orion multipurpose vehicle, which won’t be ready until 2017 at the earliest.
Given our budget difficulties, does anyone really believe the Orion will get off the ground if things remain as they are?
Read more: here.
suyts space 
You were only second.
Lol…. nice….
Anyhow, I am confused.
It is just the last couple of weeks that the Orion is back in the news. I was sure that Obama canceled the entire project.
Still confused.
Retiring all of the shuttles and not even keeping one ready to go was stupid.
I think, but am not sure, that the Orion is officially still a project. But, I’m not sure that it’s actually funded.
Stupid is about the only word which is apt. Mr. Gobment “does all for you” has allowed what has probably been government’s greatest accomplishment to flounder, dangling, twisting in the wind. It’s an outreach program now. It’s so damned depressing….. sigh
Well you know the election is just a few months down the road so they will tell the undecided voters what they want to hear, just to continue the status quo! It’s not like you haven’t heard it before. The decided voters, they could care less about, unless they say something stupid like you didn’t build that, then a race card is replayed, recycled, and reused but never reduced.
“I think, but am not sure, that the Orion is officially still a project. But, I’m not sure that it’s actually funded.”
Gotta be something like this. I had it wrong somehow. I saw video of them test dropping one last week.
http://www.space.com/16395-orion-space-capsule-nasa-unveiled.html
So, they have the basic design, but that’s about it?
I think that stuff goes inside this thing
Much cooler looking!
Orion is a human transport module (capsule). It is possible that the Orion craft could be launched on several boosters (SpaceX, ULA, Orbital, etc). Orion is not a launch and trasnport vehicle like Shuttle. On cancellation of the Ares program, NASA no longer has a booster/launch vehicle program of it’s own (Shuttle, Apollo, Gemini, etc). It is depending on commercial boosters. No commercial entity has yet launched a human into orbit.
Ahhhhh O’kay – Thanks