Reading that last message, it doesn't say what I meant to say. Let's have
another go...

What I was trying to say is wouldn't it be more sensible for countries to
cooperate in space exploration, rather than trying to "compete" for an
out-moded concept of "nationalism"? The cold war is long, long over!

ie, given that ESA has an excellent heavy lift vehicle in the form of Ariane
5, what would be the point of the US spending enormous sums of money to
develop its own heavy lift capability? Would it not be more sensible to have
international collaboration and (for example) the US to develop payloads for
launch on ESA's launch vehicle?

Regards,

Chris