On 05/09/12 19:38, John Becker wrote:

At 12:37 PM 9/5/2012, you wrote:

...

I am resigned to the fact we will in all probability never see another AO-40 (sobsob)

And the reason your thinking that is?

Cost, most likely. None of the "developed" nations have an experimental space programme where we can squeeze a big heavy satellite into a vehicle and hitch-hike to high-Earth orbit any more.

If you want to have so much as a *chance* of getting stuff to HEO, get onto some of the developing countries and see what you can do for their space programme. Iran is probably a good bet.