According to a top space agency official, it seems that NASA has to abandon its ambitious internal aim of having a new moon spaceship ready by 2013 because of money problems. If the national budget stalemates continue, NASA should still be able to meet its public commitment to test launch astronauts in the first Orion capsule by March 2015.

Doug Cooke, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for exploration, said that they would probably have to move their target date. However, an actual astronaut moon landing is still set for 2020. Moreover, Orion initially will just orbit Earth before attempting a more complicated moon launch, which is also, will involve unmanned rockets.

According to Cooke, the slipped launch target date during an interview about an internal NASA 117-page report had leaked to the website, NasaWatch. Those document shows that the space agency’s overall moon plan has encountered technical and financial problems that NASA says it can overcome. The report put the program’s financial performance in that category. It shows an US$80 million cost overrun this year for just one motor and a dozen different technical problems that the space agency put in the top risk zone, meaning the problems are considered severe.

Technical problems included software that may not be developed on time, a dangerous level of shaking during launch, the heat shield, and a hard-to-open hatch door. Moreover, it also said NASA’s plans would shortchange astronauts’ daily water needs, giving them only two liters a day when medical experts say they need at least 2.5 liters. The report showed technical problems in operations for Orion nearly doubling from May to July, with 24 items now on the most worrisome list.

W. Henry Lambright, a technology and public policy professor at Syracuse University, said that the main problem is mostly the political system for not coming up with budgets that are passed and signed by the president so that NASA can go ahead with its financial plans. Moreover, he said that the budget for next year still has not been passed. He thought that NASA is a victim of a political situation we have in this country.

On the other hand, NasaWatch’s Keith Cowing, a former engineer for the agency, said that the problem is poor design and planning, repeating some of the problems of Apollo without learning the lessons of such disasters as the Apollo 1 fire.