Is NASA on the right track with the Space Station and the Space Launch Initiative?
Yes and no. I have always maintained that our space policy should have two elements. One is a permanent U.S. manned presence in earth orbit for many military, scientific, political and social reasons, and we have that in the space station. The second element is and a way to get there and back without the tremendous expense that we incur now for a trip, and we would have had that with the National Aerospace Plane derivatives. Our ideas reduced the pound-to-orbit cost by a factor of 100 by using an air-breathing vehicle, so you don’t have to lift 78% of the payload as oxygen every time you get airborne. That oxygen is available for free from the atmosphere. And because you would have visibility of the earth, I think it would also let us prevent any worldwide conflict for another century. You wouldn’t need a weapon in space, just the ability to observe and respond. You would also have the capability of discovering underground water and minerals. What I don’t support is an international sp
