Shuttle shenanigans

Sierra Space, a subset of Sierra Nevada not based in that actual sierra, wants to land reusable craft upon a runway.

Anyway this Son Of Space Shuttle is the "Dream Chaser".

The Ozmens have this window because Boeing has failed (UPDATE 1/6/2022: and let's don't talk about Spaceport America). SpaceX is looking great but, I suppose, NASA don't want all their eggs in that one basket, which basket could well be filled with UAE, Japan, Israel and others.

Why a runway? - A runway means it can land back where it started without blasting so much blast in the area. The Falcon 9, by contrast, must land on some remote area (preferably a calm one, like a barge in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico) and be carted back home.

No, really. WHY?! They say: to access research flown down from the space station immediately. But can't they do that already? by beaming data down here at megabytes / second? For anything else, what's wrong with waiting a few hours to collect the lander from Elon's floaty platforms or some care-package in the Australian desert? Shenanigans. Shenanigans, I say.

I can imagine a medical emergency in space such that they need a quick dump back down here, to a full hospital. That's best next to the 'way, not just the limited equipment on the boat or the amber lamps. Well why not SAY so. Oh well. UPDATE 2/2/22: And other ships are, like, using the ocean. Coastal rocketry has Exclusion Zones: reasonable for test-flights, no longer reasonable for Falcon 9.

I am unsure about staging takeoff and landing at two land bases in the desert, alternating between; that might have been Spaceport America's pitch.

As for the station in question, they're looking to the private ones currently in development. Orbital Reef is noted; StarLab is another one. They don't mention Axiom so I'll do it.

Of the various ideas I like the LIFE pod the best, where I is for Inflatable. Yes yes, we can just toss Starship shells up there but as any apartment-dweller knows, you can't have too much living-space.