Noted Space expert & pundit Henry Spencer says it's time to give up on Ares.

"Ares I has been in trouble for a long time, but now the chickens (or are they vultures?) are coming home to roost: the Orlando Sentinel says that as early as Thursday, the White House may announce a review to look into whether to proceed with the rocket's development or switch gears and pursue other options.

As one underlying assumption after another has turned out to be wrong, requiring design change after design change, NASA has nevertheless clung to the same basic approach, unwilling to admit its mistake and hoping that sheer persistence would see the project through. Perhaps it could, but the price for such bullheadedness can be very high, and the budget projections are now starting to reflect that - the Sentinel says that its estimated costs through 2015 have swelled from $28 billion in 2006 to $44 billion today.

Some of us thought from the start that this was blatant empire-building.

Ares I is the International Space Station of rockets: redesigned again and again, justified using assumptions that no longer apply, and already escalating mightily in cost (and already well behind schedule). There comes a time when it really is cheaper to start over in some more sensible way, because banging your head against the wall harder and harder isn't getting you through it.

Back before Ares I had a name, it was sometimes known as "the Stick" because it was unusually long and thin (especially before its second stage started gaining weight). About three years ago, in an online discussion group, I coined a name that I thought suited it better: the White Cane.

It's time the folks at NASA opened their eyes."

I know that I'm not alone here predicting that this boondoggle was the wrong choice for Shuttle replacement. Mike Griffith has defended the ever increasing costs and delays and reductions in performance as settled engineering. It isn't. Arguement from authority is not valid in science and engineering.