And no SRB's?

BTW, unless Vandenberg can be recomissioned with minimal $$$, how does this
help the Air Force? Seems like a pricey option as far as ground support
goes as opposed to flying ELVs in the orbits most favored.

The cost isn't in the orbiter, it's in the ground support and prep.

As far as a hypersonic transport you'd need 3 orbiters or a crew
compartment capable of flying 7 people, unless they're riding in
a can atop the thing. Not to mention that unless you build duplicated
launch facilities at the destination, you either have to send only the
can and return the orbiter to launch point, *or worse*, fly the thing back on
the back of a 747, thus ticketed passengers are also paying for the
dead head subsonic return flight, unless you're planning on putting
passengers in the transport 747 for the return flight. Plus with all
that extra drag, what it the range of that 747? Refueling stops needed
along the way?

If the can (2nd stage) is resuable it always has to be returned somehow,
even if the flyback 'orbiter' portion does not. How's that done economically?
FexEx? DHL? UPS?

Any handle on the cost to prep the shuttle for flight minus the SSMEs?
I'm skeptical that you could keep the cost low enough to be able to
provide reasonable ticket charges. Not to mention the fact that hardware
upgrades/replacements are out of the question w/o expensive retooling...

Dave