Comment Re:What I don't get (Score 2, Insightful) 318
In theory, yes you are right. A couple things to remember however:
1)SpaceShipOne was sub orbital (did not reach orbital velocities) and launching into orbit would require a couple orders of magnitude more energy/fuel.
2) Everything else being equal, a spaceplane will cost more to develop than a rocket (aluminum tubes vs a plane airframe capable of hypersonic flight). Development costs are rather significant for spacecraft as the number of units produced is very low.
3) It has been tried before, rather unsuccessfully: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_X-30
1)SpaceShipOne was sub orbital (did not reach orbital velocities) and launching into orbit would require a couple orders of magnitude more energy/fuel.
2) Everything else being equal, a spaceplane will cost more to develop than a rocket (aluminum tubes vs a plane airframe capable of hypersonic flight). Development costs are rather significant for spacecraft as the number of units produced is very low.
3) It has been tried before, rather unsuccessfully: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_X-30
