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...don't forget all those EPA and environmental impact statements. And you need to find some people who would be skilled enough, and willing enough to take the time to make one of these parts. And, most of all, NASA and Rockwell, Boeing must approve all parts and assembly and testing procedures too.

Just the EPA requirements would kill this project before it got started. It's still hard for me to believe that at KSC, rainwater is handled as "hazardous waste" and hauled off to a disposal site at a cost of over one dollar per gallon. (Exceeds the EPA requirement for Zinc after it has come in contact with the galvanized drain piping.)

And then, of course, you have the entrenched NASA bureaucracy that lost the Challenger and then the Columbia. They would be in charge of any new project.

This is nothing more than wishful thinking by George W. Bush.

194 - "Just the EPA requirements would kill this project before it got started. It's still hard for me to believe that at KSC, rainwater is handled as "hazardous waste" and hauled off to a disposal site at a cost of over one dollar per gallon. (Exceeds the EPA requirement for Zinc after it has come in contact with the galvanized drain piping.)"

Sort of right - from my personal experience in about 1990: there are collection ponds at each pad, to catch the rain and launch water. Each one is governed by a separate and distinct EPA regulation. Regularly, and after each launch, many 55 gallon drums of precipitates are dumped ino the ponds. And they 'precipitate' out the 'impurities'. After about 6 weeks (if I remember correctly), they pump out the ponds crud, which is put into 55 gallon drums, and sent as hazardous waste to an underground disposal site in Alabama. The shipping cost at that time was about $350 per barrel.

Wiltech had the contract to do this. They also performed water testing. Tap water did not reach required EPA tests, and had to be disposed of as hazardous waste. Canal water, could not be returned to the canals from which it came, as it failed to meet EPA specs.

Any time sand blasting was done, it required a special EPA permit. Canvas tarpaulins had to be spread out and collect all the residue (particularly on the gantries), and then the paint chips, sand and 'gunk' collected in the tarpaulins which all were disposed of as 'hazardous waste'.