The reusable launch vehicle that whose prototype was 85% assembled with 96% of the parts and the launch facility 100%? Only to be cancelled in 2001? Yeah, me neither. Oh, and it's all still there and Lockheed is still working on similar airframe prototypes, even going as far as successfuly testing 1/5th scale updated models? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-33 Why are we spending all of this money on Ares when it is riddled with problems like...say...shaking the astronauts to death on launch? Ares is a joke. If anything, we should just dig-up the Saturn V plans, take the best from it, and then build a craft that has 2009 technologies in it instead of reinventing the wheel. The whole idea of saving money by using the Shuttle SRBs has been completely negated by the fact that the ship built on that concept is a complete clusterfuck and is costing more than if we had just started over from scratch.