Griffin's Decision...

NASA has apparently already decided how it will get cargo into space once the shuttle retires:

According to a new NASA study, when America goes back to the moon and on to Mars it will do so with hardware that looks very familiar.

NASA has decided to build two new launch systems - both of which will draw upon existing Space Shuttle hardware. One vehicle will be a cargo-only heavy lifter, the other will be used to launch the Crew Exploration Vehicle.
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According to sources familiar with the study's final recommendations, the heavy lifter will be a "stacked" or "in line" configuration (one stage atop another) and not a "side-mounted" configuration as is currently used to launch the space shuttle. The first stage will be a modified shuttle external tank with rocket engines mounted underneath. The first configuration will use 6 existing shuttle (SSME Block II) engines.

The drive to use some shuttle derived technology in the new vehicle was obviously heavy. NASA, for all intensive purposes, is no longer an organization in the business of expanding humanity into the cosmos - it's a government institution where layoffs mean unhappy voters. NASA has become a deposit for socialist government job making schemes...

Politics, as we all know, trumps everything else - even space exploration.

I guess it does make some sense to use existing infrastructure to build the next generation of heavy launchers for NASA. They've made the vehicle inline - which means crap flying into equipment won't be a problem anymore. However I can't help but wonder why NASA needs to build a heavy launch vehicle at all?

I guess the words "Titan," "Atlas" or "Delta" don't ring a bell to anyone anymore. I don't see what NASA couldn't have used the heavy launch capability that the Air Force has invested loads of money into, and that NASA has used in the past, to depend on future cargo delivery? Even at Titan's bloated prices I'm sure I've read somewhere that they still are cheaper than NASA's costs. Private industry doing a better job at rocket launches than government... That would just make to much sense.

Maybe the payload capabilities weren't large enough? Maybe someone had an axe to grind I don't know. But the dreams many had that NASA would actually start to tender contracts for regular cargo delivery to the ISS or elsewhere to small start up companies like SpaceX have just burst into flames.

Tip o' the hat to Curmudgeons.

Also I would laugh if Curmudgeons is right - that it will be the military that helps to pony up the cash for the new system. Millions spent developing one system, give up on it, then fresh millions thrown at a new system... It's the never ending story...