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To: BigTex5
Impressive on the cost front, but suborbital isn't really the name of the game anymore. The hardest part is getting from there into orbit, and achieving orbital speeds. It can certainly be done cheaper than NASA, the Europeans, or the Russians do it now, but only by a matter of degree with current technology. Cutting the cost by orders of magnitude is going to require a breakthrough in technology to replace the big-ass rockets that have been the only way to do it for 45 years, and that breakthrough hasn't been made yet.*

*-actually, it was made some time ago. But the solution to get lots of mass into orbit (or beyond) very cheaply isn't politically tenable.

4 posted on 09/20/2006 3:27:13 PM PDT by Turbopilot (iumop ap!sdn w,I 'aw dlaH)
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To: Turbopilot

And what would that solution be?


9 posted on 09/20/2006 4:55:50 PM PDT by Luke Skyfreeper
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