Jeff Findley wrote on Sun, 31 Mar 2019
15:24:30 -0400:

In article ,
says...

2. Find another way to launch Orion using commercial launch vehicles.
If NASA can crew rate Falcon 9 and Atlas V, surely they can do the same
for a vehicle which has the payload capacity to launch Orion.

Forgot to mention this possibility:

Launch Orion uncrewed on Delta IV Heavy. Launch the crew in a Dragon 2
or Starliner and have them dock with Orion before heading off to the
moon. This eliminates the need to crew rate Delta IV Heavy or Falcon
Heavy.


So now you need 3-4 launches and on-orbit assembly to get the job
done.


It's worth noting that Falcon Heavy can't (easily) launch Orion anyway
due to the fact that Orion has to be vertically integrated.


I don't see why this would be a problem.


You'd have
to come up with a way to stack Orion on top of Falcon Heavy on the pad,
which I doubt SpaceX is set up to do. That and ULA has said they can
build more Delta IV Heavies, if given the cash, of course. Keeping ULA
part of this builds political support anyway, even if they cost more.


I suspect the big driver of using Delta IV Heavy is to make the cost
comparison to SLS look 'better' (from NASA's perspective).


--
"Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."
-- Charles Pinckney