President-elect Barack Obama's NASA transition team is asking U.S. space agency officials to quantify how much money could be saved by canceling the Ares 1 rocket and scaling back the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle next year.

Obama pledged during his campaign to inject an additional $2 billion into NASA aimed in part at narrowing the gap between the space shuttle's retirement and the introduction of a successor system.

If that omission was enough to raise doubts about the incoming administration's commitment to a rocket some believe will prove much tougher to field than NASA is ready to admit, the five-page list of questions Obama's NASA transition team sent to the agency Nov. 24 probably will not make Ares supporters feel any better.

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The change I hope for is that the new admin tubes the flawed ARES and goes with the alternative plan discussed here a couple months ago. In either case, the Shuttle is overdue for replacement. I'd forego the campaign promise BS to win FL voters about adding $2B, if the right choice were somehow miraculously made. It would be the first by any administration since the 60s.