Jeff Findley wrote:
"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
m...
According to the latest news also, they are even using a material for the
heat shield that is very similar to the old version used back then.

Admittedly thety could use something else down the line, but it still
seems odd when, as you say, they are designing a very strange manned
launch vehicle when many existing ones could, presumably be made man
friendly at a lesser cost. I still think the heavy lift version would use
the legacy Shuttle stuff, but why keep on with it for manned use. Everyone
knows the only reason the Shuttle used them is basically to lift the full
tank! I hope it works for their sake, but it will be a rough few minutes
I'd imagine.

Ares I is there to hide some of the development costs for Ares V, which
would be the largest launch vehicle ever built. Ares I, in and of itself,
is stupid. But that's obviously not the opinion of Mike Griffin, who single
handedly shoved the 1.5 launch architecture down NASA's throat.

Where are the ESAS appendices? As far as I know, the FOIA requests for them
have not been fulfilled.

They will not be released because they contain proprietary cost data
that is exempt from FOIA.

(That said, it is inexcusable and illegal for a federal agency to fail
to even respond to an FOIA request.)