Credit: u/sicktaker2
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(spacecraft)
Do we know why it takes so long?
The same thing that always happens.
It got cancelled or reinstated with completely new goals in a new program three times over, requiring a massive redesign each time.
So yeah, a thing resembling Orion has been in the works since 2004, but not really.
On the other hand, 2004 is just a year before SpaceX began work on what is now Starship, which has endured much the same problems.
2004 is just a year before SpaceX began work on what is now Starship
Huh, I guess that’s kind of true, though it had many more names over the years: BFR, Falcon XX, MCT, ITS, BFR (again), and finally Starship.
which has endured much the same problems
While both the Orion and Starship programs have had their share of problems, I don’t think the causes are that similar. Orion has had to maintain funding during periods when spaceflight was not of particular political importance. Starship hasn’t had to worry about funding as much, but the engineering challenges in creating a rapidly reusable upper stage are greater.
They definitely weren’t working on starship back then. Their first successful launch was in 2008, so that was when they were working on the falcon 1.
You can’t claim all the work they’ve ever done has just been early versions of starship, because the falcon rockets are the most successful rockets in history. They’re a perfectly good product, and the fact that they’ve gone on to try and create something even better isn’t remotely the same as changing direction so often that they never actually get anywhere, like the Orion program has
Just quoting wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship_design_history
If you say 2004 is the start of Orion, that’s a fair comparison, since 2004 was the first mention of the Constellation program.
And Starship is also constantly switching scope, from heavy launch vehicle to Mars lander to Moon lander to heavy launch vehicle. It doesn’t do any of those though, unlike Orion
The goal of Starship has always been (and still is) Mars. If the design can be easily adapted into a lunar lander or a LEO workhorse, that’s just a bonus.
The spacecraft consists of a Crew Module (CM) space capsule designed by Lockheed Martin that is paired with a European Service Module (ESM) manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space.
Grifting. It’s also a hard problem, but mostly grifting. Draw out the project, keep collecting those big gvmt cheques while keeping your actual investment in the project to a minimum.
