Having said this, please consider these contributions to the conversation:
 Concerns about Congressional acceptance of decadal process results or its establishing decadal goals should take into account the fact that in the NASA 2011 Authorization Act Congress has done just that. See Sec. 202 Goals and Objectives.
 For the Sec. 202 Goals and Objectives, how will they be decomposed into guidance that NASA is able to implement? Some will require little or no decomposition. But other goal/objectives will require significant decomposition to give NASA a clear understanding of what to do. And, how is priority set between these goal/objectives? An external decadal process will be required to do this. Without it, NASA will be set up for failure.
 To promote relevance, members of the decadal process team should NOT generally be from the space community, but rather be thought-leaders in history, culture, science, anthropology, commerce, technology, diplomacy, entertainment, etc. People who understand who we are as America, where we’ve been, and where we need to go in the future; our opportunities, challenges, and fears. People who understand why the U.S. government should risk human life to send people into space. And people who can “market” their conclusions to the nation and energize enthusuasm and support.

http://www.archives.gov/research/captured-german-records/microfilm/m1079.pdf

Now, even the admiring early accounts of Our Rocketeers, e.g. Dornberger 1954 and Bergaust 1957, mention many visits by von Braun and others to Nordhausen to deal with A4 production issues. Unless you believe the place was cleaned up for them every time (“Hey, Otto, you get those hanged corpses down from the traveling crane while I bring in the 7,000 well-fed, typhus-free workers”) — the “hidden history” has been sitting in plain sight for 60+ years. Neufeld’s notes and bibliographies document this (and he took it for granted when we talked about it in 2004 or 2005).

Look: slave labor under appalling conditions ran all through German industry (not just war production) in 1943-45. Countless executives, middle managers, and foremen didn’t just “know about it,” but worked with it every day. Because the Cold War made it strategically as well as economically important to get West Germany up and running, only a symbolic handful were ever prosecuted. The only thing that sets von Braun & co. apart is that they subsequently became American heroes, especially to space fans. That required a selective backstory we were all happy with… for a while.

A postscript- FYI, Von Braun was quite canny on the topic and on the occasions it arose was careful on how he addressed it. He acknowledged the conditions were a ‘pretty hellish environment’ on camera… but if you want to believe he and his team were unaware of the conditions and methods used in production of his rocket- uncharacteristic for these meticulous engineers BTW who worked years on it- then you’ll find yourself in a small group. Not that it matters much in 2011. but you wont be seeing a von Braun postage stamp issued anytime soon in America.

Inaccurrate. The extent of Von Braun’s Nazi ties only began to surface after his death with respect to the American public– and its an ugly story.

Europe is sitting there with the Ariane launcher suited to anyone’s spacecraft.

And what spacecraft, aside from the ATV, would that be?
And why would the US, who clearly are not comfortable relying on Russia, suddenly rely on Europe? Why would any other spacefaring nation, most of which have their own LVs?

Their inaction is sad and inexplicable.

It’s perfectly explicable if you have basic knowledge of Ariane 5 and how ESA works.

I hope the US doesn’t get tied down again by international commitments.

You’re doing fine getting tied down into unsustainable projects all by yourself, or so it seems.
I hope the international spaceflight community (including America’s) doesn’t get shafted by US partisan politics.

ISS is a bloody disaster.

Constellation was a “bloody disaster”.
It’s too early to say if ISS will be a success, but it has at least produced tangible results even at less than full operational capacity.

We shouldn’t even come to the table before the SLV is launched.
That seat will remain empty for a long time, then.

I’m amazed though, I never pictured Windy as a fan of Ariane 5. Of course, it could be that that is only the case since ATK showed interest in the Vulcain engine.

Fun fact: My space propulsion class has an excursion to the DLR Lampoldshausen test facility planned for May, hopefully we’ll be allowed to take a look at Vinci

And, if you want some more technical details, see Our associated ZDK Institue (www.veldantia.com/zdki).

Keep us Posted on what happens!