An opinion on a few things.

[Moonwalker]

Well, why not boost all the stuff to orbit on shuttle and ELV and construct the TLI stage there. No need for the Aries V.

Further operation of the Space Shuttle would prevent Orion + Altair, and an Earth departue stage from being build and reach operational status. There is no money to operate different manned space programs at the same time. Operating the Shuttle any further beyond 2011 does prevent Constellation pretty much and vice versa.

[Moonwalker]

Constellation is about going into deep space again. Starting at the Moon, go to Mars, and beyond in the late second half of this century likely. The Shuttle is not a part of those deep space purposes. Building a potential future platform for deep space missions in low earth orbit will be done way cheaper by another launch vehicles rather than using the Shuttle for it. NASA these days realizes that assembling the ISS using the Shuttle was technlogical milestone, but it was also somehow s****d to put it up in such small parts using something like the Shuttle. I don't remember who but a NASA responsible once was quoted "I hope we won't be that s****d again".

The Shuttle is out of the business in any case if the future is about going beyond LEO. Let's enjoy 7 more missions and call it a day. Any program has its end, and to be honest, the Shuttle lasted for too long anyway. Constellation should have taken place more than one decade earlier already. But now NASA is in a real mess, which includes the follow on program forced by the STS-107 accident, while there are pacts to build and operate that big and fat space station. Both, ISS and Shuttle have to go if NASA seriously wants to do something totally different, i.e. going beyond LEO again.

[bjbeard]

Well according ot the August panel, even with the ending of STS and ISS, we cant afford the EDS or the Aries V.

So where does that leave us?

[Admin]

Well according ot the August panel, even with the ending of STS and ISS, we cant afford the EDS or the Aries V.

So where does that leave us?

Ahem, you mean "Augustine" panel...

/Admin

[Mogget]

I didn't realise that Ares-I was so close to a test flight 

[uri_ba]

correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Ares I-X just a glorified SRB?
they took a standard SRB, added a mockup additional segment, put in the rotation maneuvering thrusters (the only real new bit), and added a big cylinder that is shaped, and weighs roughly the same as the upper stage and orion space-craft. it sounds like they are only doing it to show results fast.

I-Y would be more of a test flight IMHO.

oops, RoCS isn't new, it's taken from the peacekeeper ICBMs

[bjbeard]

Aries I is a 5 segment SRB topped off with a glorified Centaur second stage. Then of course the Spam.