[Fusilier]

Originally Posted by RN7

This essentially part of the problem with NASA. They had nearly 30 years to come up with a successor or cheaper alternative to the Space Shuttle, and what they came up with was the Orion/Constellation project which was only formulated in 2005 right towards the end of the Shuttle's life span, and was a hugely ambitious and vastly expensive programe to replace the Space Shuttle with what the Space Shuttle had originally been designed to replace in the first place. The Ares V rocket which was the ultimate launch system of the whole project for a manned moon shot was designed to have a maximum payload capacity of 188 tons to LEO and 71 tons to the Moon, and has variably been described as a Saturn V on steroids.

I agree.