[FreedomCalls]

Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center are working on designs for a new giant launch vehicle called Magnum. It ... could launch 80 tons (81,280 kilograms) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). This compares with around 20 tons (20,320 kilograms) for the piloted space shuttle... Its lift capacity, however, would be less than the 100 tons (101,600 kilograms) that the Saturn 5 and Energia could manage.

So in spite of starting from scratch, they still can't manage even to come close to equally Saturn 5's lift capability from 40 years ago. Too many years of Dan Goldin (A FOB) must have really wreaked havoc on NASA.

[RightWhale]

they still can't manage even to come close to equally Saturn 5's lift capability

They could do even better if they had a mission requirement to lift so much. But there is no mission except Space Shuttle launches. Maybe Bush's new project guidelines will require some serious tonnage in orbit and on the moon. Then we'll see stuff.