Ok, I admit I like rockets a lot. They're noisy and impressive. However, riding on a chemical reaction isn't a cheap way to get to orbit. Until we have a materials revolution it's not going to be, for the simple fact that rockets weigh a lot--so need a lot of propellant to move, and need propellant to move the propellant, and so on... Now I remember reading as a young teen a fine novel by Arthur C. Clarke called 2001: A Space Odyssey. One of the ideas presented therein was a spaceplane that gets its initial thrust from an electromagnetic acceleration track. Now this was science fiction when it was written back in the late '60s, but it should've become engineering fact by the time I read the novel back in '97. I've seen some video on NASA TV of a short, scaled down test model of the concept at one of their centers. At least this is some progress, but, really, there've been maglev train prototypes for decades. It's 19th Century technology with dirt-cheap computer technology to control it. We use linear motors for amusement park rides! So, my question is: what're we doing? Why don't we use accelerator tracks to kick spaceplanes into the upper atmosphere now. Or at least be seriously working towards that goal. I know it won't be easy engineering, but considering that we went from rockets-blowing-up-on-the-pad-as-often-as-they-worked-correctly to landing on the freakin' Moon in a decade shows that aero-engineering moves fast if you've got smart people being funded.