Jeff Findley wrote:
There are some rumblings that the Administration wants NASA to go with
commercial vehicles for space access. This would seem to mean the end of
the Orion program as we know it. I personally wouldn't go that far, but I
would tell NASA that they need to launch Orion on a commercial vehicle and
ditch Ares I.

Does either Delta IV heavy or Atlas V heavy have the lifting capacity to
carry Orion as presently designed into orbit?
A lot of Orion's design capabilities were focused on the lunar mission,
and it's probably over-capable for simple LEO missions to the ISS.
Since ISS will probably only be operational till 2020, at that point you
have a spacecraft with no obvious mission to perform unless you go to
the Moon or decide to build a follow-up space station.
Even just for ISS crewing it's important to get whatever you build up
and flying in the near future so as to maximize its use before the ISS
is retired. Otherwise it's probably pointless to build a new manned
spacecraft, and you probably just want to buy more Soyuz rides from the
Russians.
If ISS is retired in 2015 instead, then this is really a waste of time -
as by the time it's in service the ISS will be getting ready to be shut
down.

Pat