Rocket system could lower cost of access to space, Allen says
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19514_3-57342610-239/rocket-system-could-lower-cost-of-access-to-space-allen-says/
I have remained unconvinced that using aircraft to bring rockets to merely 30-50K feet would make the slightest difference in the cost of launching. However, this statement did give me something to think about:
By launching the rocket in mid air, Stratolaunch will be able to avoid weather delays and ground-processing issues, sending satellites to virtually any desired orbit.
It is true that getting to that altitude dramatically reduces weather impact (not for nothing that commercial planes fly at that altitude), so there might be an overall savings given the number of scrubbed launches that NASA has due to weather, but scrubbed launches come for many reasons and I doubt weather is the number one factor (if anyone knows, please chime in).
To me the real breakthrough will come when someone develops a commercially effective means of putting mass into orbit that does not take so damn much fuel. I am sure that the commercial market will be able to dramatically reduce NASA’s cost of putting things to orbit (the figure most often quoted is $10K/lb) because I have always been certain that NASA does things using the most expensive method possible, but I doubt that achieving orbit will really become economical until it gets down to a buck a pound, or about what it costs to fly a plane.
