Seriously? This is something I blogged about at TPS almost 2 years ago at the IAC in Valencia.

I saw all these difficulties they had in making the 'stick' work, for a 25T to LEO payload. Motors to pull away from the 2nd stage. Motors to put it into a tumble for recovery. Such a complex mess added on top of a

Then I looked at the Atlas V and Delta IV LEO payload abilities - Atlas V heavy - 25T to LEO. Delta IV heavy, 23T to LEO. Want to go really crazy - Space X and their Falcon 9 Heavy - they predict 29.6 T to LEO, for a price of <$100m. (Yes - SpaceX yet to put anything in orbit - but I see no reason why they wont get there currently - certainly far better outlook than Ares I)

So what the hell was NASA doing reinventing the wheel - was Ares I the best way to get Orion onto orbit - or just the best way to keep all the politicians from states with a stake in Ares I happy?

STS derived heavy lift makes lots of sense, no arguing there, the vehicle as depicted by Zubrin et.al. and now called Ares V makes a lot of sense in many respects (although Liquid Fueled Fly-Back boosters would be an added bonus).

But Ares I has never made a great deal of sense to me, and as time goes on, it's making less and less sense. Vibration problems, mass problems, it goes on and on, and I just don't understand why they're doing it for anything other than political reasons.