"Derek Clarke" wrote in message

While I agree in theory with the ideal of having completely reusable
vehicles, sometimes you just have to accept that throwing bits away is
the most economical course in practice.

Maybe "reusable" is a word that leaves a bad aftertaste. I didn't mean
"reusable" so much as I meant "a vehicle with a purpose to act as a lunar
orbit/surface/orbit taxi continuously". "Operational". This thread was
continued at sci.space.policy. John Schilling posted there on this topic and
I think he makes some good arguments for a single CEV/LSAM vehicle.

Jon