NASA chief confident of Mars goal

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden has expressed confidence that the US space agency will succeed in putting humans on Mars.

He was speaking after viewing the Orion spacecraft being assembled in Florida. Its aim is to carry astronauts into deep space.

But a Congressional report from the National Research Council this month blasted NASA for lacking a viable strategy for meeting that goal.

Steve Mort reports from the Kennedy Space Center.

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SCRIPT: In a large hanger, NASA’s most most ambitious manned spaceflight project to date is taking shape.

The Orion spacecraft is being assembled here in a clean room.

The US space agency says this is the module that will - if all goes well - eventually carry astronauts to an astroid and even on to Mars.

INSERT: “Behind me // is a tangible piece of our path to Mars - an Orion spacecraft that going to travel farther into space than humans have gone for forty years.”

NASA’s administrator Charlie Bolden was at the Kennedy Space Center this week to see the spacecraft.

Orion is scheduled to blast-off on an unmanned test mission in December.

INSERT: “While Orion hardware has been tested extensively on the ground, putting the spacecraft through its paces in space provides data you just can’t get here on Earth. Right now, NASA’s building on knowledge gained through the International Space Station and more than fifty years of human spaceflight experience. Solving difficult challenges that will enable humans to safely explore deep space. What you see here today is a critical part of that strategic work.”

But solving those challenges is not going well - at least according to a report out this month.

The National Research Council - in an investigation ordered by Congress - predicts NASA’s current strategy will fail to put humans on Mars - a lofty goal outlined by President Obama.

The report calls into question the safety and sustainability of the project, and says NASA risks losing “the longstanding international perception that human spaceflight is something the United States does best.”

But NASA is at pains to portray the US as still being the leader in space. Mark Geyer is the Orion program manager.

INSERT: “This spacecraft of course is the first human exploration spacecraft developed in now over thirty years. It’s a big deal and it’s the product of a very dedicated workforce that believes that keeping America first in space exploration is critical”

For those workers here at the Kennedy Space Center, the short term mission is substantially more practical.

INSERT: “We’re going to be finishing up this vehicle here in the next month.”

Cleon Lacefield is from Lockheed Martin and part of the team working on Orion.

INSERT: “…we will be through with all of the functional tests. And we will then fuel it, and then stack it onto the Delta IV heavy vehicle.”

Orion is also the focus of the Kennedy Space Center where the loss of the space shuttle program three years ago hit hard.

INSERT: “We’re turning the corner now. It’s a transition period which are [sic] never easy.”

Rex Walheim is a NASA astronaut who flew on three missions.

INSERT: “It’s been three years since we launched on the last space shuttle mission, and we’re turning the corner with both commercial crew to the Space Station and with the Orion program. So it’s going to help a lot. And seeing this thing lift off and flying to space - it’s going to be an amazing, amazing milestone.”

Orion’s test launch will be in December when it’ll travel 3,600 miles into space and then return to Earth at 20,000 miles per hour for splashdown landing off the coast of California.