Responding to Nathan's comments:

>I'm not an expert of any kind, but I've come
>to similar conclusions about RLV
>architecture. Back in the very early days of
>the X-33 program, I made a number of
>predictions for what the first true RLV would
>look like.....

I was also sceptical of X-33 but I'm glad we went through the exercise. X-33 put a stake through the heart of SSTO. With that behind us, we can now focus on TSTO and get on with it.

> I must admit that I'm a bit disappointed by
>the SLI's morph into the CTV:

Going with the CTV on the end of a Delta-III is a giant leap backwards. I know why they're doing this. The powers-that-be are scared to death of another Challenger disaster. The word is if another Space Shuttle blows up, killing the flight crew then the remaining Shuttles will get hauled off to the Smithsonian and Air Force Museum. NASA would then implement a crash program of placing a lifting body orbit vehicle on an expendable rocket.

>Boeing had sketched out what looked like a
>fairly interesting biamese system, and the
>LOX/kero engine developments were
>certainly a good thing. (Lockheed's "airplane
>orgy" proposal, in contrast, seemed
>designed to ensure absolutely NO
>commonality between the stages... on the
>other hand, it had "PORK!!!" written all over
>it, which was probably the point).

I first saw the Lockheed design when a colleague was doing the CAD work on it for a computational fluid dynamics study. Both he and I laughed ourselves silly at what a dumb design it was. I have to confess that the only dumber thing I've ever seen seriously proposed for an STS was the Rotary Rocket. At least the Rotary Rocket (like the Lockheed design) was good for laughs.

>Anyhow, in the longer term future, I think
>that space elevators will be a better bet for
>opening up the mass exploration and
>colonization of space, and I honestly
>wouldn't be too suprised to see one being
>built in, say, 30-50 years.

Space elevators on Earth are science fiction. As I mentioned earlier, our best long term space transportation system would be something based upon beaming energy to the orbit vehicle. However that technology is a long way away.

Gary