Chris Bergin has a lengthy discussion on a joint NASA/commercial propellant depot demonstrator to be flown in 2015, if it can survive the fools on the Hill (to paraphrase the old Sérgio Mendes song).
This is the key sentence:
A HLV – of any kind – is not listed in any current ULA or commercial documentation, with experts claiming such a vehicle isn’t required under the EELV and propellant depot architecture.
Don’t anyone tell Congress.
[Via Clark Lindsey, who has an interesting discussion going in comments]
Doesn’t this proposal first need to be added to the appropriations bill before we worry about its survival? At the moment, the proposal is nothing more than a superb proposal.
However, it also seems to me that depot advocates can ask their NASA contacts to ask the White House to withhold final approval of any NASA bill that lacks funding for this proposal.