One thing to me is certain though. We need a better less energy wasteful
and dangerous way to get off planet. Maybe the physicists can actually
find the source of gravity and let us harness the force instead of
fighting it.

They have, it's called lift! �Lift can get a ship out of the bulk of the
atmosphere anyways. I wouldn't be surprised if some sort of
air dropped launching ends up being the cheapest and easiet way.


YES YES YES, a air launched gigantic airplane air dropping a mini
shuttle at the very top of the atmosphere minimizes taking fuel tanks
and infrastructure 90% of the way to orbit..

refuel the airplane repeatedly on the way up, to launch release
altitude.

military can use the same system, and a airliner that could hold a few
thousand, or jumbo cargo hauling has advantages too. mean bomber to
level a miss behaving country. nice replacement for B52s

cruising at 70,000 feet would make shoot downs hard, with precesion
guidance to target destrruction.

say 5 or 6 times the size of that largest russian plane. only thing is
it would rquire dedicated airports for operation