Cheap access to space - again (was: Audacious Tactics)

> >> My impression was that orbit is expensive not because of NASA
but because
> >> chemical rockets out of Earth's gravity well just suck.
>
> This isn't at all accurate, though it's a commonly held belief.
The
> cost of launch is high in large part because the rate of launches
is
> low.

Given the existing infrastructure of NASA, how quickly can they
turnaround a shuttle? If the variable costs of shuttle launches was
made available and the fixed cost of the standing army was held
steady, how many more could we launch per year?

Or do they have to take as much time as they do now to rebuild the
shuttle prior to every launch. IOW, is the shuttle truely a reusable
launch vehicle or is it so extensively rebuilt between launches that
it is only marginally reusable?

TangoMan