re: LEO is halfway to anywhere, but..
To the article linked by Ser Raoul's post:
Any company who's priced launch services from anybody for anything knows all about that bastard of a first step.
How acknowledging what companies already know creates progress towards cheaper space flight is beyond me.
If I'm a company who's ready to spend a billion dollars or so on a commercial satellite, one of the first questions I'm going to ask is:
"Can I get it back?"
And NOT, "Will this lead to cheaper launch services for my next billion dollar satellite?"