Joe Strout :

In article ,
h (Rand Simberg) wrote:

"We'd have a small cramped cabin for the orbital flight and you'd be
in
it for a long time. You'd want to go to a hotel [because of that] and
for orbital tourism you'd want an altitude of 130km," says Rutan.

Yikes. You'd want higher than that, and you'd want more than one guy.

And you'd want a vehicle that could enter at Mach teens, rather than
Mach three...

I'm sure that Rutan hasn't overlooked the reentry problem.

As for the capacity -- yes, one person seems a bit on the low side. But
it's a start. It couldn't ferry normal people to orbit but it could
perhaps serve to rotate the highly-trained crew of a space station,
perhaps more cheaply than the alternatives. Or, perhaps you could have
the craft flown remotely or via automation, so that it could in fact
carry an untrained passenger. Though I admit that seems unlikely.

Look at the pickle NASA is in now because Shuttle and the ISS. If they had
one man craft that could reach the ISS and return then they could get a lot
more done.

More likely, the plan is to first make a prototype craft in which a
highly trained pilot can reach orbit -- that in itself is a tremendous
achievement! Then to scale it up still further so that it can carry one
or more passengers.

Yes, why build a big monster when you are still testing out your designs.

Earl Colby Pottinger

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