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In honesty Ares I and especially Ares V were extremely bad designs, requiring very long lead times and having enormous development costs and upkeep costs. They were a "Designed by Committee" spaceship and their demise will not cause me any tears.

What bothers me is that they are being scrapped and no new ship is being built. We could have built DIRECT and been flying again at a fraction of the cost in four or five years. But by letting things go cold you lose all of your trained personnel and existing facilities. We will never be able to afford a start over from scratch space program.

It is not just the loss of the moon that is an issue here. But when the last shuttle flys later this year, it will represent the last time Americans will fly into space aboard an American rocket. We will no longer be a space capable nation.

We could stay in space for the cost of the commercials spent on the Superbowl. But hey who cares American Idol is on. Perhaps we should have a new song for Obama.
Rockets on the ground
Rockets on the ground
Looking like a fool
With your rockets on the ground.