The Me-163 had about 8 minutes of powered flight. It's flight profile typically was to launch, pass thru an Allied bomber squadron firing it's cannons as it passed by with few hits. After burnout it would then turn around and again pass thru the squadron with about the same effect. Then crash miles from where it was meant to land in the process killing the pilot.

It was possibly the least effective interceptor in history! And as I stated before pushed into service before ready. The thing traveled about 100 mph faster than any Allied fighter and could have been devastating with the right weapons, variable thrust and a longer burn.

Major point here is it's flight profile is in no way similar to a commercial suborbital rocket plane and the Reich was willing to kill pilots in a vain hope of terrorizing the Allied pilots.