The United States’ first chance to cut some time off a planned five-year hiatus in launching people into orbit is over.

NASA told us yesterday it’s giving up on flying a crew aboard the new Orion capsules until September 2014 at the earliest. With the shuttle program shutting down in two years, the agency had hoped Orion would be able to fly crews to the International Space Station as early as 2013.

But the agency needed more money and fewer technical problems to make that happen. In a conference call with reporters on Monday, program managers said the accelerated development scheduled was officially off and that contractors on the program will be notified to slow their pace to match available funds.

"The window of opportunity for us to accelerate (the program) is closing. In fact, this summer with the re-alignment of our schedule, it's closed," said Jeff Hanley, the program manager for NASA’s new exploration program called Constellation.

Uncle Sam will be counting on its good friend (except for this week) Russia to ferry crews to and from the space station until Orion is ready to fly. Course, Congress hasn’t given its official blessing to that plan by lifting a trade embargo slapped against Russia to protest trade practices with Iran that presumably helped Iran develop nuclear weapons technology.

Seems like a good time for China to make a pitch to be our space taxi service. Judging from all the sky-walking and zero-g simulations during the stunning Olympics opener, they’re definitely in the market.

Caption: Not so fast. NASA rendering of Ares rocket leaving the launch pad.

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