NASA is planning on making the first flight under the Constellation Program as soon as 2015, five years after the space shuttle is set to retire, although initial plans pointed to an earlier date. In a conference held this week by NASA managers, they motivated some technical and financial difficulties that arise when bold plans are under development.

The Constellation program’s main mission is to fill the gap that the retirement of the space shift will leave for the Americans in space. Among the challenges, sending a new manned mission to the moon and even further than that would probably be the hardest to achieve.

In order to do that, they have been working on a component of the Vision for Space Exploration in parallel with missions for the International Space Station. Orion will be NASA’s crew exploration vehicle in charge of the next manned mission on the moon and other corners of the Solar System.

In August 2006, NASA selected Lockheed Martin Corp. as contractor for the design, development and building of the Orion spacecraft, which will take the new generation of explorers into space. The work to the Orion spacecraft was supposed to end by September 2013, while the initial mission was supposed to launch the Orion with humans onboard no later than 2014, and a moon landing no later than 2020.

The Ares I rocket is scheduled to launch the Orion crew capsule and six astronauts, together with small pressurized cargo payloads, to the International Space Station at the beginning of 2015. On July 24, 2008, NASA announced the successful completion of the first drop test of a drogue parachute for the Ares I rocket.

Also part of the Constellation Program is the Altair lunar lander, which will deliver men to the moon, as well as provide life support and a base for a longer exploration of the surface of the moon. The Altair will also be responsible for returning the crew to the Orion spacecraft, in charge of bringing them back to Earth. Altair is programmed to launch aboard the Ares V rocket into low Earth orbit, where it will dock with the Orion crew vehicle.

As NASA’s Rick Gilbrech, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington pointed out this week, while the Constellation Program is still on track, “our new path forward better aligns our project schedules with our existing funds to ensure we can address the unplanned challenges that always arise when developing a complex flight system.”

According to NASA, they’ve re-aligned Constellation contracts and internal milestones against a date much earlier than March 2015 to incentivize an earlier flight capability. Over the next several months, NASA will discuss with the contractors on adjustments of program plans and internal milestones, which is a common issue when dealing with a complex development program that involves significant resources, work and timing.