From: bondage@frontiernet.net   
      
   Ian Woollard wrote:   
   >   
   > henry@spsystems.net (Henry Spencer) wrote in message news:...   
   > > >Basically my calculations show that you can save the entire first   
   > > >stage if you build an air breathing booster.   
   > >   
   > > That's plausible.  But so what?  You've turned a rocket first stage into   
   > > a jet first stage.  In the process, you've made it harder to build and   
   > > more difficult to develop.  For what?  To save *LOX*?  WHY???   
   >   
   > A reusable flyback booster?   
      
      
      Which still need not be hypersonic (or supersonic at all) to be   
   effective. Super/hypersonic seperation of stages is not a trivial issue,   
   and a subsonic air-breathing carrier that gets you into less dense air,   
   and a rocket powered second stage whose exhaust expansion is less of the   
   inevitable compromise between sea-level and vacuum is a desirable   
   thing....   
      
      
      
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