🚀 go-pugleaf

>> Atlas and Delta are providing profits for the companies that make them <<
 
As for Delta, absolutely, positively right. But I fail to see how depositing
two enormously expensive satellites in the Atlantic can be said to be
a profit for General Dynamics and the Atlas. One more misfire, and GD might
be relegated to government flights only (Ariane will make a killing).
 
Besides, you seem to have missed my point.
 
The Space Shuttle was already more-or-less paid for, so why not use it.
I was trying to say (got sidetracked, I must admit) that the U.S. should
have put its money into a new unmanned booster system, not tired old
designs like Titan and Atlas. In the meantime, we should have continued to
use Shuttle to launch as much as possible until an NLS-or-whatever came
online. It would be online by now, I think, if we hadn't taken the Titan IV
plunge.
 
-Brian