Mike Griffin isn’t going to be happy…

Just weeks ago the NASA boss apparently got upset at the merest hint from Obama’s advisors that the Shuttle-replacement Ares I rocket might be scrapped under the new president. Now rumours are flying that Barack might look to save money by modifying existing launch vehicles.

Bloomberg says barriers between civilian and military space programmes could be smashed, with NASA using modified versions of the Delta IV or Atlas V rockets to send people to the Moon. These rockets are used by the military to throw up spy satellites but are also used by NASA and commercial companies for everything from Mars probes to telecoms sats.

“Obama’s transition team is considering a collaboration between the Defense Department and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration because military rockets may be cheaper and ready sooner than the space agency’s planned launch vehicle, which isn’t slated to fly until 2015, according to people who’ve discussed the idea with the Obama team,” says Bloomberg.

ARS Technica says:

The military rockets, known as Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles, have already gone up 21 times since their 2002 debut. Griffin has argued that EELVs are unsuitable for manned missions and vehemently opposed proposals to switch systems. But studies reviewed by the transition team last month suggest that modified versions of the rockets may not only be able to carry a human crew aboard NASA’s latest capsule, Orion, but do so two years sooner than Ares would allow, and at a cost savings of $3.4 billion.

However, NASA Watch notes that Bloomberg appears to have stumbled when calling the Delta and Atlas “military rockets”:

EELVs are not the Pentagon’s rockets. They were developed (partially) with DoD money so as to assure that the DoD had viable commercial launch options. But they have always been sold on a commercial basis (currently by Boeing/Lockheed Martin- ULA) for use by both DOD and non-DoD customers alike. NASA’s New Horizons and MRO were launched on one (Atlas) as have been a number of commercial communications satellites on both Atlas V and Delta IV EELVs.

The Obama Administration may well be thinking of pairing up NASA and DoD to compete with China, but that is a different issue than using EELVs which you can buy today from the ULA catalog.

For more, Space Politics’ Ares 1, EELV, and a conference presentation is well worth reading.

Image: NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sits atop an Atlas V prior to launch / NASA