"BitBanger" wrote in message
...

$50 million for a spaceship carrying 5-7 passengers into orbit and bring
them back safely? What a joke. There's no way someone will be able to
claim
that prize for a long time.

While what you say is true, what's to stop other people, companies,
governments, and etc. from donating more money to the prize? I'd personally
like to see the US Government donate a few hundred million dollars each year
to the pot. The longer the prize is unclaimed, the bigger the pot grows.

For this kind of craft to be anywhere near safe it would have to be a
capsule, and a big one at that.

Perhaps. You could also design a TSTO where the first and second stages are
recoverd and reused and incorporate the flight deck into the second stage.
This ought to be easier than recovering the space shuttle, because the
second stage would be mostly large, empty tankage.

Jeff
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