NASA proposes a ''new'' rocket.

Not sure if this interests many people here, but Floridians better read up, becase the Government's space programme is going round in circles...

Okay, some background to this. In 2004, Dubya initiated his ''Vision for Space Exploration'' which cumulated in the Constellation Programme, which was to get the ol' American Flag back on the surface of the Moon. With Astronauts coming on for the ride of course. Constellation went on for 5 years and development on the Ares I and Ares V rockets, aswell as the Altair LSAM and Orion CEV was started. The Programme was thwarted by bad design, several redesigns and major delays. 5 years, and billions onf dollars later, they did manage to test an shuttle SRB with a dummy 5th segment and upper stage (called the ''Ares-IX'' Mission). The Ares V and Altair were way pie in the sky at the time, and the Orion CEV suffered from major redesigns (due to the Ares rockets). In 2010, President Obama killed Constellation, the programme was way underfunded and was making no progress. After months of political wrangling about the controversial descision, mainly focused on the Lay-offs caused by the cancellation of Constellation Programme (and of the Shuttle Programme, but that was going to happen regardless), Congress eventually came to a compromise and called on NASA to deliver a rocket which could initially lift 70-100 tons, and eventually reach 130 tons (Just over the LEO capacity of the Saturn V) and be ready for 2016.

Its now January, and NASA has proposed a new rocket to congress!

It makes use of the 8.4 Metre Shuttle ET, RS-25's (SSME's) and 5-segment SRB's strapped to either side. The upper stage is proposed to be a J-2X based (like the Ares I)

Now here's the catch, NASA have said to congress that this proposal (which could lift 100 tons to LEO) would NOT be ready by 2016, and would NOT be within budget.. Howver Congress did explicitly state that the launcher had to have the ET, SRB's and keep as much Shuttle and Constellation hardware as possible.

To me, this basically looks like it'll get cancelled by some president in five years time, just seems so much of the same..

lol @ nasa being within budget.