Ares Needs a Death Panel

(Cue Death Star music–not Death Is A Star) What can I say? They’re right.

Exploration plan doesn’t fit in current budget, panel says

NASA is underfunded. They need an extra $50 billion or so across the next ten years to do what they’re supposed to do. Given the anticipated national-level direction and funding trend for this sort of discretionary endeavor, NASA should expect to be riding on a man-rated version of the Delta IV and cancel their Ares [...]

Air Force: NASA’s New Rocket Unsafe for Astronauts

The Air Force thinks the crew escape capsule for the shuttle replacement, known as the Ares I, will not allow the crew to escape if a low-altitude disaster were to occur. Given the capsule’s nylon parachutes might well have to fly through a massive debris-field of flaming chunks of solid rocket motor, that seems reasonable. [...]