Peter Stickney wrote:

the need to
keep track of it on the way up, and have it fall somewhere other than,
say, a Junior Jugh School in New Jersey if things go wrong


They aren't going to live that down for a while, are they? Could have
been worse...could have hit a ski-lift in the Italian Alps...

have made
that inherent flexibility moot.


It's going to use _Soundless Rocket Engines_?!
Oh, excuse me...I thought you wrote "Mook" for a second there. ;-)

Is there any reason to believe that those artificial requirements
would be modified or lifted for Rascal? I rather doubt it, myself.


In times of crisis, the launch restrictions would be put aside, as long
as the booster stages came down over open ocean; it would be a lot
easier (and cheaper) to keep some of these things loaded and ready to go
than a fleet of Lockheed Tristars or B-52's, like Pegasus uses.
Considering the price that Rutan built White Knight/SpaceShipOne at, he
probably will be able to turn RASCAL out at a bargain basement
price...if only the bureaucracy will leave him alone- and not drown him
in paperwork, like the B-2 Stealth Bomber project was.

Pat