Low Cost Earth Orbit Access: A Look at Physics,Economics, and Reality

Engineering problems are one factor limiting low cost access to low earth orbit. Insurance and range costs also hinder low cost access. Achieving low cost orbital access requires dealing with economic limitations of chemical rockets, lack of business planning, and failure to identify a workable path that will take us from an immature to a mature launch industry. A mature launch industry exhibiting low cost to orbit and significant flight rates by reusable vehicles with long lifetimes will not evolve unless this multifactorial problem is solved.