On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 14:38:37 -0500, in a place far, far away, Pete
Lynn made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
.. .
I've have a long essay in this quarter's issue of The New Atlantis, in
which I discuss the myths of the old space age.

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/6/simberg.htm


Nice, though one point I do question is your emphasis on reusability.
Is this not picking winners?

Yes.

Can the market not decide this for itself?

Sure, but my opinion is that we won't get costs low enough for
tourists if we throw the vehicle away. If we don't get them low
enough for tourists, we won't get them low enough to open up space (or
have an "affordable" and "sustainable" VSE).

To break out of this I am wondering if on orbit assembly is actually the
critical first step to high flight rates, and thereby CATS.

It may be, for orbital launchers.

Launcher
growth prevents high flight rates. I suspect CATS might only grow from
a market that discourages launcher growth.

That may be the case, which is another reason I oppose heavy lift.