Chemically powered SSTO's are, indeed, almost certain to remain unfeasible for the foreseeable future. Multistage reusable, something along the lines of a full-featured version of the Rutan suborbitals, should be doable, but would take longer to develop and get into service than the simpler Orion concept. Possibly there are other reasons for avoiding it that NASA's familiar with and I'm not.
My personal bias, of course, is 'Atomic power does not mean going back to the nineteen fifties'. 'Old Bang-Bang', for instance, is and will and should remain in the 'Oh fuck no!' range, no matter what its cool quotient is. But there are other designs, more practical with modern materials than ones from half a century ago, that keep their radioactivity decently sequestered and have higher potential ISPs than chemical propellants ever will.
But that's going to be politically impossible for a while yet. Pity.
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
My personal bias, of course, is 'Atomic power does not mean going back to the nineteen fifties'. 'Old Bang-Bang', for instance, is and will and should remain in the 'Oh fuck no!' range, no matter what its cool quotient is. But there are other designs, more practical with modern materials than ones from half a century ago, that keep their radioactivity decently sequestered and have higher potential ISPs than chemical propellants ever will.
But that's going to be politically impossible for a while yet. Pity.
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."