Its so wrong for so many reasons
Couple of big things. As was mentioned before, we're currently - get this - going to rely on the Russians for the only Manned access to the International Space Station from Shuttle retirement 2010 till this thing gets up there? You know the guys that just invaded Georgia, cut off heating supplies to nations in the winter..that nation. Smart, not setting us for a problem there. This is so we don't have to spend money to keep the shuttle around til its replacement is working (which would seem to be the way you'd want to do things when you have a space station) - pennywise and pound foolish?
The design has been constantly fighting weight issues because Nasa wants to use a Shuttle Solid Rocket motor for its primary lift of this capsule - again for political budget reasons - but it doesn't provide enough lift. (There's two US vehicles that could solve that problem, but it would be a little more expensive - Delta IV Heavy (human rate this) or Atlas V Heavy - new development).
At this point it's actually looking to be Ocean recovery as the norm and Land recovery as an emergency measure - again because of weight issues because the political choice of the Solid Rocket Booster main stage doesn't provide enough oomph. Can you imagine - we're back to having sea sickness and vomit all over the place on virtually every mission (ask Apollo Astronauts). Expensive to do the sea recovery - that's for the future to pay for. Penny wise and Pound Foolish.
This program should be eliminated with the next Admin and started over from scratch with real long term goals and technology, not "what can the budget shoe horn in for us".
Biting the hand that feeds IT
