ULA Briefings Show that EELVS Can Replace Ares 1
Military rockets: Solution for NASA?, Orlando Sentinel
“According to documents presented to Obama’s transition team three weeks ago — including internal studies by the rockets’ manufacturer, United Launch Alliance — upgraded human-rated versions of the military EELVs would have enough power to take NASA’s fully loaded Orion crew capsule into orbit. In fact, the studies say some configurations of the rockets can lift up to 6 metric tons more than NASA requires…”
… Industry officials say that a few days later, Griffin called Robert Stevens, the CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp., which jointly owns ULA together with Boeing Co., and demanded that Stevens stop what Griffin called the subsidiary’s efforts to “kill Ares I” by promoting versions of its own rockets that could carry humans to space.