I'd sure like to know a lot more about this:
Recently, an attempt at a PDR by ATK was called up short by the minions. Not even a goatee could make you feel warm and fuzzy that day. Having failed in their quest to show some level of design maturity, ATK was not even allowed to finish their presentations and were sent back to the showers to try again. And, oh, by the way, none of the ARES 1 designs at PDR, including the upper stage, include any of the modifications that will be required to turn the bladder basher into a real human space transportation system. That will come later. Makes one wonder why the PDR was scheduled if the design is that immature and missing pieces, don't it?
If true (and there's little reason to think otherwise, despite the happy talk from Jeff Hanley), how long will this farce go on?
If ATK is such hot s**t, why are their engineers (at least, the smart ones) making bailout moves?
Rats from a sinking ship?
Methinks the market for fat SRBs might be drying up.
Obama or McCain gets elected, Griffin is fired, Stern is put to lead NASA, the Ares vehicles are scrapped, a new smaller capsule, perhaps Apollo sized CM wise, will fly to the ISS on a light EELV (no solids) in a few years.
COTS with SpaceX and Orbital continues slow and cash strapped development.
That's probably the most likely alternative I can think of. There are many more of course.
MZ, I don't know about that part about Stern. He just took up a position with one of the Google Lunar X-Prize teams, so he might be tied up for a few years.
And really, the problem isn't Griffin, it is that there is a NASA at all, with the deeeeep pockets of the US government picking The One Solution To Rule Them All. NASA's funding skews the entire space industry marketplace and reinforces the idea that space is so hard and so expensive that only governments can do it. It's only rocket science.