The U.S. Space Centers suffer deep cuts. There is no national space agenda and the programs loose their constituencies. The U.S. launch companies that are still in the business cannot compete with the foreign launch providers. China and Japan exploit the U.S. market for space goods and services. Your two choices are:
Invest in the Japanese space program,
Form an alliance with the european space program to launch science payloads on EU vehicles,
The Ariane 5 launch vehicle.
