sftommy":ij4gi8my said:
General response to subject;
Interesting line of thought?
Without new launch investment, we have as major launch vehicles;
Shuttle
Delta iV - Heavy
Atlas V
There is also
Ariane V
H IIB
Proton
Proton can bring over 20t to ISS height and inclination, which i think is more than Shuttle, or at least very close.
Proton was build to be able to do Moon orbit insertion, but i think Soyuz, with about half of mass to LEO, can do it too. There were some talks about selling Soyuzes for touristic rides around the Moon, but story calmed down, probably too expensive for joyrides, or above current Soyuz production capacities.
sftommy":ij4gi8my said:
Imagine what we would have in orbit if constellation funding and the new heavy launch monies were invested in these tried and true vehicles instead.
I will just remind you, that RS-68B modifications for HR are done, now it will take about 3-4 years and a lot of money to get NASA HR certificate.