HanzoSpam sends us this story from Space News, which begins: "US President-elect Barack Obama's NASA transition team is asking US space agency bureau to quantify how much money could be saved by canceling the Ares 1 rocket and scaling back the Orion Crew search Vehicle next year. ... The questionnaire, 'NASA absolute veto Transition Team Requests for Information,' asks agency board to provide the latest break* on Ares 1, Orion and the planned Ares 5 heavy-lift cargo launcher, and to calculate the near-term close-out costs and longer-term savings registered deputy with canceling those programs. The questionnaire also contemplates a scenario where Ares 1 would be canceled but serial of the Ares 5 would continue. While the questionnaire, a copy of which was obtained by Space News, also asks NASA to provide a cost translation for accelerating the first operational flight of Ares 1 and Orion from the current target date of March 2015 to as soon as 2013, NASA was not asked to study the cost implications of canceling any of its other programs, including the significantly overbudget 2009 Mars Science Laboratory or the James Webb Space Telescope."

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