[hopespringseternal]

I don't think that even mag-lev rail launches off the side of the Rockies quite gets us down to under a million per launch.

The problem isn't technology, and people dreaming up magical technology to throw at the problem simply show that they don't understand it.

The problem is economic. NASA has an extremely limited notion of what they want to do and what is possible because they don't understand markets. They spent thirty years chasing those nasty capitalists out of their territory before they finally started to get a glimmer of an understanding that they were limiting themselves as much as anyone else.

Space needs economies of scale and it will never get that from NASA.

[RightWhale]

They spent thirty years chasing those nasty capitalists out of their territory before they finally started to get a glimmer of an understanding that they were limiting themselves as much as anyone else.

You have lighted upon an eternal truth.