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AIP FYI #82: FY 2008 Appropriations Bill Update
"Fiscal Year 2009 begins two months from this Friday. Yet appropriations work on Capitol Hill has become seriously bogged down, and it now appears that it may not be until March 2009 - about six months into the new fiscal year - when the FY 2009 appropriations' cycle will be finished. ... There are additional factors leading to this impasse. The potential for confrontations and delay during floor consideration is high in areas ranging from policy to funding levels to earmarks. The Democratic leadership contends that President Bush would veto any appropriations bill sent to him, which based on last year's experience seems likely."
This should give Griffin the excuse he needs to announce that the schedule for first crewed flight of Ares I will slip even further, into 2016. Of course, he could just stick with the current "plan" and he will be out as Administrator before the budget is passed in March 2009 (or later). Then it will be someone else's problem.
This program is dead, if not for technical reasons, then for budget reasons. Another multi-billion dollar program is going to go bust. Except this time, the Shuttle will be gone too. The "gap" just may well evolve into the end of U.S. human space flight. It will be up to the next generation to get us back into space. Oh wait, that generation doesn't care about space.