[dr_lew]

I'm betting that the answer is to be found in a variant of "a)": Constructing hybrid vehicles with a first stage consisting of a piloted horizontally-launched aircraft (eventually hypersonic) which can lob a more rocket-like second stage into orbit before returning to land on an airstrip.

Can't see it! Apollo was the ultimate, not to be equalled in this epoch. I would say that I hope I'm wrong, but I can't even get that far.

"It has a stark beauty all its own." Let us be content with that.

[Campion]

Equipment designed in the early 1960’s, mostly using a sliderule and a drafting table, is “the ultimate”?

[alexander_busek]

I'm betting that the answer is to be found in a variant of "a)": Constructing hybrid vehicles with a first stage consisting of a piloted horizontally-launched aircraft (eventually hypersonic) which can lob a more rocket-like second stage into orbit before returning to land on an airstrip.

Can't see it! Apollo was the ultimate, not to be equalled in this epoch. I would say that I hope I'm wrong, but I can't even get that far.

As I said, this is the strategy currently being pursued by Orbital ATK. To be honest, I don't know whether Orbital ATK is actually turning a profit on it (though the company has other activities and is, as a whole, profitable), but it is a more-economical means of lobbing satellites into orbit than using Saturn rockets.

Regards,