Chat with XCOR Aerospace (Another Blue Origins/Virgin Galactic Sub-orb Company)

_Tombstone_

http://www.space.com/31224-commercial-spaceflight-future-jeff-greason.html?cmpid=514648

XCOR Aerospace's Lynx space plane under construction in late 2014 at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

Capt'n Midnight

Sub orbital is much easier than orbital.
The Germans managed thousands of sub orbital launches from mobile transporters in the 1940's with a one tonne payload. And they were very inefficient, obvious improvements would have been not using 20% of water in the fuel, not integrating the fuel tank into the fuselage, using verniers or swivels instead of drag inducing vanes in the exhaust.

Sub orbital may be of some use for first stage boosters. But the energy requirements of orbital are a magnitude greater.



It might even be cheaper to achieve weightlessness by using very large magnets and using VR goggles linked to cameras in orbit.