Also the Dummy Rocklet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSF81yjVbJE

This looks quite complicated. Knowing how (comparing to other known ways of transport) unreliable rockets are, I'm predicting amount of crashing known from cortex command . Also, you have to carry to orbit additional fuel, that you'll need on the way back, so the same type of rocket will carry less to ISS if it's to return.

Rockets in cortex command only crash when newbies pilot them, these folk are rocket scientists, pretty sure they'd have a lower failure rate than you expect.

Besides, rockets aren't all that unsafe actually.
Statistically you're more likely to die in a bike accident than a rocket accident.

Haha CC48 has the top comment.

Is it possible that this could be applied to transport across the world?

It'd be expensive as ♥♥♥♥, but it could be done I guess. There'd have to be designated landing sites.

I think it would be much funner to shove people into super tight metal capsules and then fire them with a giant mass driver at their destination. Incredibly unpredictable and dangerous and impractical, but hilarious.

I say we build antigrav trains using the earths gravity field
and yeah since so few rockets have actually been launched and the fact that at least one that I know of did explode killing I think all of the people inside the statistics of bike vs rocket are severely skewed,

Use gravity... to make... antigravity...
Nooo, it doesn't work that way.

Sure it does, depending on whether or not you're twelve.

Lizardheim: http://www.aero.org/publications/crossl ... 01/03.html
Of the 4378 space launches conducted worldwide between 1957 and 1999, 390 launches failed (the success rate was 91.1 percent)

If your death probability on a bike is 9,9% you're a zombie or have a sense of balance like a 2 year old. Or never ridden a bike.

Eh, I'm pretty sure "failed" doesn't equate to "blew up".
Look at the truly amazingly mind-blowingly unexpected results I got from a little google search.
(scroll down to the comments section to see some more interpretations)
Of course, it's still damn unsafe, regardless of how you look at it.

The statistic wasn't for astronauts, it was more of a joke.

390 launches mya have failed, but not all of those were manned.

Anyway, dummies and clones hardly count as "Astronauts".

No they are actually cannon fodder.