I've been reading about our lifters.
Turns out there are a couple of proven heavies that could readily carry the Orion capsule.
They were not even considered because they were not man-rated.
They were not man-rated because NASA didn't want there to be competition with their jobs program, the shuttle.
Considering the epic cost to launch the shuttle we would have been better served with disposables.
Maybe someday...
And now they're talking about abandoning the ISS "temporarily" if the Russkies can't figure out why their last supply launch fizzled (since they use the same rockets for the Soyuz capsules as they do for cargo), because the supplies will run out and because the escape capsules are only rated to stay up there for so long.
ReplyDeleteSo, currently, there is no method available to put humans in space. "Two is one and one is none."