NASA looking at Orion crew launch in 2019

[Robert]

Such an initiative comes with major questions for NASA. First of all, would risk evaluators sign off on launching astronauts on the massive SLS rocket without an uncrewed test flight in advance? (The agency has done so before, launching John Young and Robert Crippen on the first space shuttle mission without an uncrewed test flight). The second major question is whether the Orion spacecraft would be ready for such a mission. NASA engineers at Johnson Space Center have been designing the vehicle for an uncrewed EM-1, without some key life-support systems.

But one engineer at the Houston space center said it is likely that, with additional funding, Orion could be made ready. Some of the systems, such as carbon dioxide removal systems, might have to rely on a more rudimentary canister system rather than a final design, but the older technologies have been proven out in past missions. "If we started with EM-1 and added only what we needed, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work," the engineer told Ars.

The politics of all this remain murky, as well. The notion of a crewed EM-1 flight may be part of a plan by Lightfoot to increase the chance that the new administration continues funding support for development of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft. As Lightfoot is well aware, there are factions within the Trump administration urging the president to fully embrace the commercialization of the space agency, along with the promise of less expensive rockets and capsules being developed by the private space industry. A greater focus on commercial spaceflight might reduce funding—or eliminate it altogether—for the more expensive government vehicles.