“The original study ordered by Griffin in the Spring of 2005, called the Exploration Systems Architecture Study, or ESAS, ruled out using the military rockets and other systems. Instead, it settled on a two-rocket approach — including a new rocket design that used the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters as a first stage — that would become Ares I and its heavy-lifting cousin, Ares V..

But the way the study was conducted, with little input and participation from contractors and rocket companies, led to howls of protest that the study was not fairly conducted and that the results were suspect.”

Further on . . .
. . . study done in 2005 might have been shaded in such a way to lead you to the current architecture and they [the administration] now wants to take a look at whether [Constellation] is the right answer,” said Roger Launius, a curator at the National Air and Space Museum.

Of course, I am totally shocked by these revelations!