Safety or Comedy: It's All in the Timing

In an article on spacedaily.com, Dupont and NASA have come to an agreement to jointly develop kevlar reinforced tank foam for the Ares-1 crew launch vehicle. This strikes me as a good idea, but perhaps a little too late since all the envisioned future NASA vehicles have the crew capsule at the front of the vehicle and any foamed tanks behind that. Foam separation in these future vehicles shouldn't post a hazard to the crews -- in fact, dumping the foam just after launch might allow a few extra pounds or tons to be orbitted.

On the other hand, reinforced foam on the shuttle might've saved lives. This seems like a case of bad timing.