Why can't a stripped-down variant of Orion be used for NASA's Commercial Crew Program?

摘要

If I were a marketer I'd tell you no problem. But the fact of the matter is that Orion has really been optimized to be a beyond Earth orbit spacecraft. So for Orion you are talking about long duration, about meteorite protection, radiation. So it's really optimized for a different mission. Oftentimes when you try and build something that's all things to all people you end up with something that's not as good for either one. That said, however, I think it's congressionally mandated as backup to the commercial activities should they fail. Certainly Orion can go and do that mission. It would be more expensive than had we optimized it to do that mission. We're a supporter of NASA's dual path with commercial crew to low Earth orbit and with Orion for the beyond Earth orbit deep-space exploration. That's a true answer and not a marketing answer.