Ed Kyle wrote:

It's about time Russia accepted Zenit for what it
is - maybe the world's most perfectly conceived
(if not perfectly executed) space launcher. It is
the rocket that NASA would like to have for CEV -
kind of like an Atlas V on steroids - able to boost
a 14-15ish ton payload to low earth orbit with no
solid booster augmentation. It is the capability
Russia is trying, unneccessarily, to copy with its
Angara program. China and Japan would like to have
such a rocket, but they don't. Europe had to work
hard to get its Zenit (Ariane 5G) working.

Ukraine and Russia have had the perfect machine
for nearly 20 years. They just haven't used it.



I think it got sort of sidetracked when Energia went down the tubes,
followed by the Soviet Union going down the tubes.
It's a very impressive rocket looking for a very impressive payload to
carry.
Meanwhile, from far-off Hawaii, Jeffrey Bell looks at the CEV plan-
surprisingly, he doesn't like it ;-) :
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-05zl.html

Pat