On Friday, NASA representatives reported that the Orion capsule's first test flight was postponed until 2019. The flight was planned to take place in November 2018, but the dates had to be moved after the White House administration demanded an economic justification for the importance of this mission. NASA also decided not to add astronauts to the first mission of the EM-1.
Instead, the agency follows the schedule in order to prepare the crew for the second test mission EM-2, scheduled for August 2021. But there are suspicions that the second flight may be delayed.
The decision was based on the limitation of costs, the need to improve thermal protection and add life support systems. All this increases the cost of the mission, so the agency must take everything into account to fit into the budget. NASA representatives reported that they had discussed these issues with the White House, so postponement is a mutual decision. The official date of the mission in 2019 is not called. According to general calculations, a manned reconnaissance operation on Mars in 2033 should exceed $ 33 billion.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on management to speed up the work process in order to have time to send people to the Red Planet by the 2030s.
