Creating routine, aircraft-like, low-cost access to space is not only technologically challenging, it will require enormous tenacity to overcome the inevitable bureaucratic, political and funding hiccups. These are just a few of the lessons learned by veterans of the Delta Clipper-Experimental (DC-X) rocket ship program. Created by an entrepreneurial-like pact between industry and government from 1991-1997, the DC-X project showcased the technology and operational concepts for a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle capable of supporting an array of military and commercial applications, including public space travel. The DC-X was first managed by the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, under a contract with the U.S....