"David Nakamoto" wrote in message
...

If we have any national will to do space exploration right, we NEED both a
truly reusable shuttle AND a set of medium to heavy lift expendibles.

"We" (ie we Europeans) do have a heavy lift capability - Ariane 5, which has
something like a 70% world-wide market share of the commercial launch
business :-)

Don't you think that it's a bit silly to bring "nationalism" into space
exploration? Shouldn't "we" - the entire human race - be working together to
achieve it, rather than talking about things like "national will"?

Regards,

Chris