slightly different subject

Hello

I have been following this exchange with some interest. It reveived an old
idea and I would like to 'throw it out to the group'.

An old idea in rocketry was the launching ramp. It was staple of sci-fi
movies until the mid fifties when the work at Cape Canaveral didn't include
one. I concede it is large and vulnerable for a military rocket, but for a
civilian project it has many advantages.

First, it is a sort of re-usable first stage. More importantly, it is a
low-tech first stage that doesn't fly, is made out of common steel and
concrete, and can be modified turing its development phase without starting
over each time you have a failure.

I can be built by relative amateurs at a fraction of what it take to launch a
flying first stage.

With such a facility several low-cost (relatively speaking) rockets can carry
a commercially useful payload to orbit.

Man-rating such a system would be even easier. It is analogouse to runway
with several GO/NO GO options.

Perhaps we can form a groups something like the EAA and construct the
launcher somewhere.

As I have said before, low cost to orbit make many things possible.

Rudy Behrens