[vannrox]

Too bad the Clinton Administration killed all the Heavy Lifter programs back in 1993-1997. I Believe it was a Gore idea. The money was funnelled into such programs as Nuclear Technology to North Korea; Grants to Russian Generals; Art involving Urine, and Union payoffs. If it wasn't for the Congressional established budget in 1999, we wouldn't be able to play catch up in two or three years.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Too bad NASA didn't keep a real heavy lifter, ~145 tons to orbit.

[Royal Guardsman]

Too bad the Clinton Administration killed all the Heavy Lifter programs back in 1993-1997.

Too bad you don't know your history. In the late 80's Reagan proposed that the US reestablish its heavy lift capability by proposing what was then called the National Launch System (NLS). This would have been a monster booster with a lift capacity of about 1.5 times that of the Saturn 5, and thus would have been by far the most powerful rocket in the world today, able to lift and entire space station to orbit with a single launch. NLS went through some redesigns a few years later and emerged as the Advanced Launch System (ALS), essentially the same concept but with some major improvements. Boeing even went so far as to build mock-ups of a recoverable avionics unit that they tested in Puget Sound in 1991. Unfortunatly the first Bush administration decided that this was not a worthwhile expense and terminated the program. In fact, Clinton REVIVED the heavy lift program at the behest of the Air Force. I suppose you didn't watch the news last week of the first flight of the Delta IV heavy lifter...or the launch earlier this year of the equally powerful Atlas 5? Both of these rockets are the American answer to the Ariane 5 and both were conceived in by Clinton/Gore 1997. I despise Clinton as much as anyone, but you need to get your fact straight.