The degree of optimization & mass-cutting you need to do to get to LEO in an SSTO vehicle with zero payload is absurd, and wings or landing gear sabotage that i

The degree of optimization & mass-cutting you need to do to get to LEO in an SSTO vehicle with zero payload is absurd, and wings or landing gear sabotage that immediately. And assuming you get there - even very small payloads demands enormous vehicles. Which now you've got to brace for horizontal mass loading, with takeoff from a RUNWAY with some kind of unspecified sea-level propulsion at a mass of what, 500-1000 tons? What is the special sauce they are pitching to make this worthwhile? Some kind of launch sled? Taking off at 30 degrees pitch from an as-yet-unbuilt Kilimanjaro Spaceport at just under mach 1 would certainly help an SSTO make its numbers, but is that enough to make the idea competitive? So far, it hasn't been. We have proven first stage return capability now with more conventional vertical launch rockets, proven a middle-stage hypersonic return capability, and done an early beta test of last-stage return capability from quasi-orbit, and mounting a spaceplane on top of a Falcon 9 first stage for full reusability (or a BFS on a BFR) appears perfectly feasible. Why SSTO? Why now?