Markus Baur wrote in
:

i did not think of it as any port in a storm - just of an additional
way to make money with it ..

What other ways are there to make money with it? You can't use it to
deliver crew into orbit, so I've just been assuming that it's a stepping
stone toward that goal.

Commercializing space flight is the key, but after forty years of big
promises in that regard, it has yet to appear. So forgive me for being
skeptical. This X-Prize idea is a good one, and I hope it can break the
logjam, but I'll believe it when I see it.

If you think it's bad having just a few commercial aeronautics companies,
since there are only a few customers for airplanes, and each one is very
expensive, just project that phenomenon onto the space industry. The
problem looks insurmountable to me.

is there any way to make payload / height comparisions of ss1 with
exiting sounding rockets - i have looked (a little) and did not find
the proper information ..

I have never been able to find a good publication for answers to questions
like this. You'd think there'd be a magazine devoted to aerospace science,
but if there is, I don't know of it. It sure isn't Aviation Week and Space
Technology. Smithsonian Air and Space is the best I can find, but that's
more of a history mag. Let me know if you find anything.