According to Chris Bergin on nasaspaceflight.com, Constellation program manager Jeff Hanley has proposed huge changes to make the Full Operational Capability date of 2015 (itself already a budget-driven a two-year slip from the original schedule). The changes include: "deleting the Ares I-Y test flight, making Ares I’s first stage disposable, switching from Orion 4 to Orion 3 as the Full Operational Capability (FOC) date, along with a host of additional changes.." to get the first astronauts up by 2015.
COMMENT: I always note that comments in this blog are my personal opinions as a private citizen. Sometimes I need to really emphasize that - like now. Cutting, in effect, two test flights, after the test plan has already been truncated once, is a very unwise notion that smacks of being budget, not schedule, driven. I get annoyed with schedule slips like every other space-watcher, but schedule slips are preferable to eliminating tests. Computer simulations don't replace flying - ask SpaceX. Either give Ares-Orion the budget to do things right or don't do them.
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