[chimera]

Cool, but still a midget compared to the Saturn V. We lost a lot of heavy-lift capability when we cut our own throats closing down that program.

[JATO]

Cool, but still a midget compared to the Saturn V. We lost a lot of heavy-lift capability when we cut our own throats closing down that program.

That's the bitter truth. It would almost be worth giving the plans of the Saturn V to China and let them knock off a couple hundred copies...

[Paradox]

I suppose we could go to the Russians for a "boost".

Here is an article I found, which I dont agree with neccessarily, which says we DONT need a super heavy lift vehicle..The Myth of Heavy Lift.

[So Cal Rocket]

You could strap another 4 core boosters to the Delta IV Heavy and get around 30 mT to LEO

[r9etb]

We lost a lot of heavy-lift capability when we cut our own throats closing down that program.

We didn't "cut our own throats." The unpleasant truth is that there was no market for such a heavy-lift booster once Congress shut down the moon program. Nor is there even a significant market for the Delta IV -- and that includes no commercial market for that much throw weight.