The problem, Sam, with the cost numbers to orbit are that it’s not clear whether or not they’re cost numbers to come back from orbit. Yes, the first two stages are presumably recoverable, but does the third one contain enough propellant to deorbit and get all the way back down to the ground, propulsively? There’s no TPS in this concept, as far as I can see. If he has to come back down the same way he went up, there has to be a lot of propellant left in the vehicle in orbit for return. It’s a question that I didn’t ask John yesterday, but I may today.

I know that he has been talking a lot to Lutz Kayser, but I hope he didn’t drink too much of the koolaid. OTRAG was, after all, expendable.