NASA abandons plan to fly new spaceships by 2013

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) - NASA has abandoned plans to get its
replacement for the retiring U.S. space shuttles into service by 2013
because of a lack of additional funds and technical issues, officials
said on Monday.

The U.S. space agency had hoped to fly astronauts to the International
Space Station aboard a new spaceship called Orion as early as
September 2013, well before its formal deadline or goal of March 2015.

"The window of opportunity for us to accelerate Orion has closed,"
program manager Jeff Hanley at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
told reporters during a conference call.

The United States will be without a means to transport people to and
from space after the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010 until the new
ships are ready to fly. It intends to rely on Russia to ferry crews to
the space station and on private companies to deliver cargo during the
gap.

NASA had hoped to minimize the gap, but additional funding to do so
has not been approved by the U.S. Congress.

The agency now hopes to be able to fly an Orion crew to the
International Space Station by September 2014.

The delay will force NASA to renegotiate several contracts with
companies developing equipment and providing services under the
"Constellation" program, which has the overall goal of landing
astronauts on the moon by 2020.

Prime contractors include Lockheed Martin Corp, which is developing
the Orion spacecraft; and Alliant Techsystems' ATK Launch Systems; The
Boeing Co; and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a United Technologies Corp
company, which are working on new rockets.

Also involved are Oceaneering International, which is developing new
spacesuits, and SGT Inc, which is providing support services.