Instead, I'm focusing on the reality before us. By this point, we should have three AJAX cores ready, and can begin flight testing of those by late 2015. Now we can retire shuttle without worries. Third, by 2014, should be able to be manned. Second on an AVH, which will go to the ISS unmanned to serve as a lifeboat. First Orion flight on DIVH in 2013, with the being a test of it's heat shield, orbital systems, etc as currently planned. I'd then order three Atlas V Heavy flights, and begin the work rebuilding the Ares I MLP into a platform for AVH. The other three incomplete I'd turn into AJAX cores. That would give us breathing room to 2015. If I were running the show, I'd stretch out the remaining shuttle flights, and add two more with the LWT and ET-139. Without NASA launching something, it becomes easy pickings. Without access, SLS becomes an easy target for politicians looking for something to axe. We'd have no shuttle to help support costs, and we'd loose access at the same time. 2 years ago, when we could push the existing shuttle flights out to 2015 by launching them at one a year, the effort to get in-line would have been stretched out enough to make the cost viable. You're not saving $2 billion, however, you're saving between $6 and $8 billion, depending on whose numbers you believe.
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