That's all well and good, but the technology for something like that is centuries away (you need a space drive, as I said, and much better materials technology). An elevator can be built now, at not much more cost than developing a replacement shuttle. Then you can use the obscene profits it generates to fund research into the stuff I just mentioned, rather than relying on a tight-fisted government who want guns instead (OK that's not entirely fair, but the NASA budget is rather feeble at the moment).
The problem with the "space plane" concept is that it is by nature a very high-stress design. For free-fall re-entry, a capsule is far better, as it's simpler and safer. IMO a space plane will be much more useful when a method can be found to greatly reduce re-entry velocities, so that the orbiter can actually be controlled to some extent.
I forsee the commercial sector overtaking NASA very soon - that's where the money is now, so people will be jumping at it...
