[chilepepper]

Under current plans, NASA expects to make a decision around 2006 or 2007 about what type of spacecraft would succeed the shuttle

This would be insane even if Columbia hadn't burned up, given that the NASA bureaucrats would take another 10 years to actually build it, assuming a Leftist president in the interim didn't come along and cancel it outright.

If it weren't for Clinton I think we would have the next generation shuttle ALREADY. gosh, i hope i'm wrong and the Aurora really exists and is space capable!

[Salgak]

Yep. We could have had the Delta Clipper operational. But Lockheed-Martin, flush from selling secrets to China, was flush with cash, and offered more money to develop the now-dead X-33. . .