Kind of like Mothra versus Rodan, we have another round of this ongoing theological discussion in progress. Now, “Publius Rex” takes issue with the piece a few days ago by Jeffrey Bell that shredded many of the arguments for a winged Orbital Space Plane.

I discussed the issue then, but my main point remains that, while these are interesting technical arguments, they’re ultimately irrelevant to our future in space, because given its current philosophy and the politics of the situation, NASA is unlikely to come up with anything that reduces costs or significantly improves safety. That will come only when we stop looking to NASA for our space transportation needs, and increase funding to the private entities to whom those things actually matter.