"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 22:02:57 +0100, in a place far, far away, "Henk
Boonsma" made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

Delta IV (and Atlas V) have a potential advantage in their
modularity. A Saturn V class heavy lifter tends to be very
expensive and there isn't any call for one at present. We
certainly could use more affordable not-quite-Saturn-class
lift.

I doubt that given the fact NASA has been ordered to prepare manned lunar
missions in the next decade. At some point they will have make the same
decisions the Apollo program managers had to make: do we use a single
large
booster or assemble a craft in orbit. They chose the former. I suspect
they
will make the same choice this time around.

They did that because they understood little/nothing about orbital
rendezvous and assembly, and they were in a race with time. The
situation is different today.

With all respect, I think both you and Henry are wrong. But we'll know soon
enough