Woketman, I didn't say they were qualified, I said they are in the process of doing the qualification tests on the motors. They added a 5th segment and are having to do some more engineering on the nozzle since the vectoring on the current SRB's needs to be improved.

The company I work for manufactures the main ingredient for the propellant in the boosters, (and just about every other solid fuel motor that is produced, i.e., the Atlas, Tomohawk, Sparrow, etc.). I have been involved with the Shuttle program since 1989. There are two vehicles in the works, as to who will end up producing the boosters for either or both of them remains to be seen. That is, if they decide to go with solid fuel rather than hand it over to private business and for some reason are swayed to think that liquid fuel will work better. One is a manned flight vehicle and the other being the heavy lift. Whether either of these will ever see the darkness of space remains to be seen, but I can tell you from personal experience that we have just processed over 1 million pounds of Ammonium Perchlorate to be used for either a demonstration or qualification motor to be cast within the near future. Where it goes from here is anyone's guess, let's just hope it goes the right direction.

This is a video I took of the Ares Development Motor 2, (DM-2), firing on Aug. 31, 2010. This is a 5 segment motor.

http://youtu.be/QFD0rbd-7zU