The Sanger Concept

> From: sraj
> The Sanger Concept developed by the Germans, where a large
> reusable sub-orbital shuttle carries a smaller shuttle to a
> higher altitude, seemed to be quite elegant. Why does this
> not figure in future space carrier plans?

Because in most realistic engineering studies the lower stage:
*Melts due to friction as it slowly accelerates through high mach numbers
*Is too heavy
*Is so large it has an impractical development cost with respect to designs
which promise a similar price/payload to orbit
*Usually need very long runways, which are more expensive and harder to
locate (because supersonic flight is illegial overland) than VTOL towers.
*Depends on engine technology that currently does not exist and does seem
likely to exist for the next ten years.

John