DC-X's followups didn't get funded because the government and its subcontractors were comfortable with the expendable rockets, at least until Boeing (which boug

DC-X's followups didn't get funded because the government and its subcontractors were comfortable with the expendable rockets, at least until Boeing (which bought McD) got frozen out of most government contracts for the EELV program. They were "punished" for corporate espionage by the government giving the contract to the company with the expensive, important parts of the rocket built in Russia. (BTW, kids, if you ever want to see what a successful act of espionage looks like, look at this: it would look like Boeing shooting off its own foot and then the Pentagon shooting off its own foot in response, both in ways that "accidentally" benefit Russia and make us dependent on them for space access.)