>>23 You are wrong in this effect. Ballistic Missiles are in fact capible of reaching orbit. The only modifications made to the Titan Missiles in the 1960's was the fact that a warhead was removed and that section of the rocket was modified to fit a cockpit and enviromental system to accomidate a human. We used early ICBMs to launch astronauts into orbit. A Peacekeeper-3 Missile could be launched from Washington D.C. and hit Akron Ohio after circling the globe once. Now, launch that in a vertical trajectory. It needs a high velocity to be able to fire that range.

Would you rather spend several billions of dollars on building each individual craft, which must be rolled out to a launch pad and prepared before launch. or press a button and fire somthing from a silo. And as I also stated, if we make a miscalculation on the mass of the asteroid, the space craft will stand no chance at diverting it. If its too light, you just add onto the debris heading for earth. And how much resources would be used to make these craft?