Kryten

XS-1 only requires a reusable booster, it doesn't actually require it to be a 'spaceplane'. The previous requirement for sep at at least mach 10 with RTLS did essentially mean designs had to some level of flight capability rather than pure boostback, but for phase 2 the minimum requirement has been pushed all the way to mach 3.

X-15B was to work with what they already had to get someone in space as soon as possible. PRIME and ASSET were experiments to produce lifting body spysat re-entry capsules for increased cross-range, X-20 also focused on cross-range along using aerodynamic forces for cheaper plane changes, X-37B is anybody's guess. Couldn't put them on the capsule body because of re-entry, couldn't put inside capsule body with pop-off panels because too large a modification, could't put anywhere other than capsule or parachute line because there just wasn't anywhere else.

It also had retrorockets in the parachute lines to cushion the landing; another thing that would inevitably have led to disaster with enough flights.

Most of them, at least outside of SSTO concepts. Dynasoar, PRIME, ASSET, X-15B, et.c. X-37 is sort of the exception, having originally been a NASA programme, but it's now USAF as well. Voskhod didn't even have ejection seats, that's how it was able to fit so much more into the basic Vostok hull.

Voskhod cancellation was almost certainly a good thing, no matter what the remaining missions were intended to do. The thing almost completely lacked abort options, it was only a matter of time before it killed someone.

The closest thing to a minimal orbital launcher which has actually flown is the NOTS EV-1 Pilot from the late 50's, with a ~1kg payload to LEO. The rocket itself was under a metric ton, and even if you include the launcher aircraft total system mass is only 11 tons. Smallest ground-launched LV was the Japanese Lambda-4s, with was under 10 tons for a ~40kg payload. Both of these are all-solid vehicles with relatively primitive fuel forumations, we could do better now.

If it's not based on external air supply it will not help you. Something like that is mostly going to be set up for dust, not volatiles like hydrazine.

Safe exposure limit for hydrazine is 0.01ppm, hence the contained bunny suits. I can guarantee a military hazmat suit will not be able to provide adequate protection.

Because it's a cheap low-fidelity mockup; Bigelow's BA-330 and Sundancer mockups are similarly low fidelity.

KSP is a video game.

How small can one get to do what, exactly? Do you mean an orbital rocket?

But we're not sending up rovers just to look at rocks, we're sending them up to get mineralogical data which takes time to gather. APXS in particular can take days to get a good reading.

Try reading the post it's in, where I explain it. He was one of the first people in Orbital, which you'd know if you followed the link and read on like I said instead of generating paranoid gibberish. Seriously, what is this even supposed to mean?

Orbital basically invented commercial space in the US, all the previous attempts had been pretty miserable failures; you would not have SpaceX, Blue Origin or any of the others without Orbital leading the way. You can certainly learn a lot more from their history than from a guy who speaks in horribly tortured car metaphors.

He's not freelance, he's one of OrbATK's department heads. The rest of your post is pretty much gibberish.

I'd say one of the best ways to get a feel for real aerospace is to just go here and start reading; http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com They have pretty strict rules on going off-topic and general post quality, and have quite a lot of users who are directly involved in the aerospace industry. A good place to start would probably be here; the story of the origins and design process of the Pegasus launch vehicle, by the lead designer of it. Will teach you more about rocket design than any amount of messing around in KSP.

All the SLS slots are 6U, six have already been selected by NASA. They should launch after the MarCO communication relay sats on InSight, which are also 6U.

Very unlikely to be worth the effort to support a new configuration for a smaller market.

There are actually secondary payload opportunities for lunar missions, China Great Wall are offering some spare capacity from the Chang'e missions. They already had a commercial payload (Luxspace's M4) on the Chang'e 5 T1 mission in 2014, and they're flying another Luxspace secondary in 2018 (either on Chang'e 5 or the relay sat for Chang'e 4). The first payload was a simple comms unit attached to the upper stage, but the second is supposed to be an independent microsat, with enough propulsion capability to enter lunar orbit.

Sorry, got my Japanese acronyms mixed up. The SSTO demonstrator was RTV; http://www.b14643.de/Spacerockets/Diverse/VTVL-Demonstrators/index.htm

There was years of work put into all of these projects, and a good bit of hardware development for many. You can also add DC-X and HTV-R to that list, and they both flew. SpaceX and their F9 architecture have moved far closer to practical reliability than all the straight-to-SSTO programmes put together, and with a lot less time and money. The most that's ever come out of an SSTO team are some of the DC-X team members going to Blue and working on New Shepard, and even then only by ditching their previous straight-to-SSTO mentality. EDIT: Heck, even Jess Sponable, one of the guys heading DC-X and responsible for their straight-to-SSTO stance, is now running a flyback/boostback TSTO booster program, XS-1.

ASSET was unshrouded.

Every time we've tried that it has done the exact opposite of paying for itself. X-33, NASP, Roton, HOTOL, all just soaked up dev funds and coughed up diddly squat. The margins are so thin with SSTO that the first big engineering issue is likely to just kill the project stone dead.

There are plenty of cubesat operators with money, it's not just highschool students. Take PlanetLabs or Spire, people are doing real commercial work with them.

Light stuff with lots of hydrogen; water, many plastics, et.c. You still need to get all that mass orbit, and move it around once you're there.