The 100/10/1 Rule.

richard schumacher wrote:

He will start by dropping the pointless qualifier "unmanned".


I had a thought here... if NASA built something along these lines it
would be spread all over the US:
Engines built here, tankage built over there, electronics somewhere
else, then assembled at yet another place, and taken from there to a
launch site.
But if done commercially...since it doesn't stage, you could build it at
one place, stick the payload on it, and roll it a mile or so away and
launch it. Without staging, one of the main arguments for a seacoast
launch site vanishes, and you now have all sorts of options open to you
as to where you want your launchpad at.
For GEO you still want it as far south as possible, but for polar orbits
you can put it just about wherever you want, so why not right next to
the rocket factory?
You could make it a manned launcher, but NASA would try to get their
hands on it, and it would end up being dragged down to KSC.
If you do it for commercial and military launches, then it might have a
chance of sneaking under the NASA radar.

Pat