Gunter Krebs wrote:

USAF announced the decission to transfer 7 Delta-IV launches of the EELV
Buy 1 to Atlas-V. Additionally 3 Vandenberg launches of EELV Buy 2 will be
granted to Atlas-V.

So it is now 14 Atlas-V vs. 12 Delta-IV for the Buy procurement.

And NASA asigned the New Horizons to an Atlas-5(551) launch.

Looks like a lucky day for the Atlas-V program. And a heavy blow for
Boeing's Delta-IV

That is kind of sad. The Delta-IV was the last launcher that had a chance to
demonstrate economical usage of LH2 as a propellant. I was hoping for a
fair fight between Atlas V and Delta IV to finally settle the age-old
question wether hydrocarbons or hydrogen is better. On the other hand it is
very good for the russian RD170/180/190 series engines. They won't go out
of production for decades to come.

Now it looks like all workhorse commercial launchers use dense propellants,
and most of them use russian engines. Proton, Soyuz, Long March, Sea Launch
and Atlas are arguably the most cost effective launchers in existence, and
they all use dense propellants.

The only remaining (somewhat) commercial hydrogen powered launchers are
Ariane V and H-II, and both agencies try to supplement them with cheaper
dense propellant launchers. The Europeans want to launch Soyuz and Aurora
from Kourou, and the japanese are building a dense propellant launcher
called J-1A using russian engines and dense propellants.

So for all practical purposes, Hydrogen is dead as a first stage propellant.
It is of course still used in upper stages where it makes sense to go for
the highest possible ISP.