It is unfortunate that I continue to read ill-informed comments about the reasons for our demise (Space News 11-12-2001, page 24). The real damage from these commentaries is that they mask the real issues and instill a sense that only NASA and DOD funded efforts can succeed. Our program would have resulted in a well-conceived, technically absolutely available, large lower cost launch vehicle. Our plan always included an ultimate evolution to re-usable first and second stages. We correctly targeted the alive and well geo-stationary market and additionally hoped for some space station resupply missions. We were naively lured into business ...