spacefire -- pretty please let's not submit the same reply three times again. Thanks much.<br /><br /><font color="yellow">"Shuttle-proven unreliable, unsafe, expensive. <br />Soyuz-limited payload"</font><br /><br />So you're making a definitive statement about a class of vehicle that has had *no* production models built -- or even reasonably functional developmental models against two existing spacecraft built for specific purposes. You're then further generalizing those two existing craft into being representative of the class as a whole. For the Soyuz in particular, this is ridiculous, as a capsule can be made much larger than it is and your only argument here against it is limited payload.<br /><br /><font color="yellow">"delta IV heavy-like any expendable launcher, it will be expensive. <br />Falcon V-maybe it will be cheaper than using a two stage or single stage lifting body configuration, but safer??? we don't know yet. "</font><br /><br />You might be unaware of this, but the Delta-II and Falcon-V are boosters, not re-entry vehicles. A lifting body is a type of re-entry vehicle -- there is no 'launch methodology' implicit in that term. Your argument is akin to making a statement that "poodles are the best dogs in the world", and then backing that up by saying that goldfish and turtles aren't cuddly.