Bumpy Space Ride? Try Shock Absorbers

Ares project manager Steve Cook called it "a very manageable issue."

There are many such challenges that face NASA's return-to-the moon program, according to a report issued Thursday by outside federal auditors.

The Government Accountability Office highlighted other potential problems, including too much weight in both the rocket and Orion capsule, design issues with a new engine for a booster, insufficient facilities for certain types of testing, and private industry's inability to make the Orion capsule's 1960s-style peel-away heat shield.

None of the technical problems are "a fatal flaw," the report's author, Christine Chaplain told a House Science subcommittee Thursday.

Former astronaut Kathryn Thornton, associate dean of engineering at the University of Virginia, said experts believe one of the biggest problems is that the space agency is set on a schedule of returning people to the moon by 2020 without enough money. Getting to the moon by that date is "exceedingly unlikely," she told the subcommittee.

Related Links:

Irene Klotz's blog: Space Diary

Ares I rocket

NASA Vision for Space Exploration

How Stuff Works: Rocket Engines