NASA Study Reaffirms Decision to Stick With Ares

— NASA took a close look last year at an alternative launch system known as Direct 2.0 that its proponents say promises to put the United States back on the Moon faster and cheaper than the Ares rockets NASA has been working on for the past three years. A summary of NASA’s evaluation, publicly released July 3, shows the U.S. space agency reaffirmed its decision to stick with Ares 1 and Ares 5 after concluding the Jupiter rockets proposed by the Direct 2.0 advocates offer neither the performance nor the reliability NASA says it needs to go back to the Moon.