From: junkmail@wolfkeeper.plus.com   
      
   Mike Miller wrote:   
   > The point of SSTOs never involves weight efficiency - you'd use   
   > multi-stage designs if you want to put a lot of weight into orbit   
   > relative to the upper stage mass. (Well, Orion SSTOs kinda buck that   
   > trend, but Orion SSTOs have issues of their own.) The point of SSTOs   
   > is COST. Only 1 vehicle to dust off, reload, refuel, and relaunch.   
      
   More to the point; only one vehicle to design. That means you only need   
   half the R&D staff (in principle), this saves lots of money, since the   
   up-front capital costs are half the cost of launch.   
      
   OTOH, you have a riskier program; and that increases the cost of   
   borrowing money.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)