bump ... interesting idea.
Years ago, during an Apollo moon shot, Jules Bergman had Arthur Clarke on the TV show as a guest. AC, smiling, started to say that mass in LEO was worth mere pennies per pound, and JB cut him off like a MEAT CLEAVER. That's a taboo subject at NASA. What business ever funds its COMPETITOR?
Thus EMSL could have been shooting projectiles into LEO for the past 20 years, the FREIGHT to LEO at 150,000g's whereas the PASSENGERS go to LEO at 3g's in the shuttle. But money TALKS($20,000/#)and BS walks. The love of MONEY is the root of all evil, even in STS.
So, rocket failure after rocket failure, but who cares?