Jonathan wrote:

They need to come clean and soon.

The problem, Jonathan, is LC39A and LC39B are fantastically expensive to
maintain and operate, and will take billions even just to decommission.

If they want to launch out there, they'll have to revert to the VAB as a
four bay (one per side) with small lightweight reusable cores, and run
them out there on a small dolly and launch like the Russians do it.

I can see them processed horizontally, then vertically in the high bays,
and then set horizontal for the ride out to the pad, and then erected.

That way any old perch on the exhaust duct will do, and they can tear
down all that crap, and then they won't have to maintain it anymore!

What they need to do is commercialize their side of the river.
Not a new pad, just stipped down 39 A and B with multiple perches.
No crawlers or non of that ****, heavy lift just ain't happening.

They can commercialize the SSMEs they have until they get some new
engines, commercialized Russian hydrocarbon engines for the boosters,
and then get started on a second generation engine program for real.

That should keep JSC, MSFC, Stennis and Michoud busy for years.

That's what they want, right? Screw exploration, we want LEO!