Alex Terrell and to all others of this topic,
Why are you folks having to re-invent the fly-by-rocket wheel?
Obviously the entire NASA/Apollo fiasco isn't working out, now is it?

Personally I see nothing all that insurmountable about multiple
assemblies transpiring safely and efficiently in space. Haven't these
negative about everything fools ever heard of CAD engineering that's
been more than capable for creating end-results that are good to less
than 0.001", and of the "O ring" that can manage quite nicely with as
great as +/- 0.1"?

Even the tapered metal to metal joints, as in male tapered flange to
female tapered flange of non-O-ring methods is self aligning. So what
exactly is "Fred J. McCall" yapping about?

How Rockets Differ From Jets
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.s...107473b791e711
Engineering ain't magic, Tomcat.
This analogy should apply to many that claim that w/o documented
engineering that we've managed to fly-by-rocket lande upon and
EVA/moonsuit walked upon the moon, while forgetting six times out of
six to honestly photograph anything, forgetting to bring back any of
that extremely thin, colorless and highly retro-reflective layer of
"magic" clumping moon-dust, and even 6 times out of 6 expeditions
forgetting to bring back any moon atmospheric samples which should have
been loaded with the likes of sodium, radon and argon, as well as a
touch of O2 and dozens of other viable elements to boot. Christ
almighty, MESSENGER can't even include an honest look-see at the
natural dark colour of our own moon in their Earth flyby. Is all of
this MOS pathetic engineering magic or what?
~

Kurt Vonnegut would have to agree; WAR is WAR, thus "in war there are
no rules" - In fact, war has been the very reason of having to deal
with the likes of others that haven't been playing by whatever rules,
such as GW Bush.
Life upon Venus, a township w/Bridge & ET/UFO Park-n-Ride Tarmac:
http://guthvenus.tripod.com/gv-town.htm
The Russian/China LSE-CM/ISS (Lunar Space Elevator)
http://guthvenus.tripod.com/lunar-space-elevator.htm
Venus ETs, plus the updated sub-topics; Brad Guth / GASA-IEIS
http://guthvenus.tripod.com/gv-topics.htm