I would love to hear opinions about Elon Musk's announcement a
fully reusable, two-stage launcher. In this SpaceX animated video --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p176UpWQOs4 -- the launcher reminds me
of the Falcon 9; it looks like the first stage has nine engines.

I would think SpaceX would need a much more capable launcher, perhaps
something more like the Falcon X or Falcon XX (sans its NERVA-based
NTR, for political reasons) to get a decent payload and have enough
fuel for a tail-first, soft landing.

Would a LOX-kerosene first stage provide enough capability for such a
launcher, or would SpaceX have to switch to a LOX-LH2 first stage?

Musk made a comment about reusing such a launcher 1,000 times. Was he
just stirring up interest, or could a tail-first, soft landing make it
possible to reuse a launcher 1,000 times?