To be fair, they are working on a lot of the advanced problems before they get the basics. So they may be closer to a practical application than it looks. But

To be fair, they are working on a lot of the advanced problems before they get the basics. So they may be closer to a practical application than it looks. But they didn't get the basics. Getting high up into space is much, much easier than reaching orbit. To the point it's a qualitatively different problem.