<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>A full scale SSTO VentureStar wouldn't work<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />By no means i am a proponent of SSTOs and especially flawed programs to get to them, but you cant make statements like these either.<br /><br />First, at what point of time it would not work ? AFAIK, VentureStar was just a concept, not a detailed design. So, its performance characteristics, the materials used, the payload numbers and so on, were not set in stone, far from it. <br />That was the reason for building the X-33: get some factual data, flight characteristics, performance and so on to DESIGN VentureStar later on. You could certainly design and build a SSTO right now, with nonexistant payload, and no ability to get back from orbit. With endless amounts of money, testing and persistence, you could also eventually bring it back in one piece. And after throwing more mountains of money after it, employing better lighter weight materials, reiterating engine designs and boosting performance, you could get it to launch a kilogram of two.<br /><br />What i am saying is, with enough money, you could build it. As time passes by, you get better materials to improve your mass fraction, and possibly lower operational costs. Currently, and at the time when VentureStar was planned, it would be horrendously uneconomical to pursue this path and it would probably never pay off. However, time moves on, and somewhere along the line the prospect becomes economical, if it wont be superceded by some other developments meanwhile ( i.e. space elevator )<br />