[Moonman62]

But Shepard had to land on the water and wait for someone to pick him up like a helpless kitten.

[El Sordo]

RA is talking about speed, I believe.

Rutan's bird flew along at many hundreds of miles per hour. He didn't need to worry about bleeding off much airspeed at all (by comparison). Let's say it flew at 750 and landed at 150. Then his delta-V is 600. Thus he didn't have the heat problems that an orbital reentry vehicle does.

In order for a vehicle to orbit the earth, it must attain a speed of around 17,000 miles per hour and is dependant on the elevation of the orbit (I think. I'm probably wrong on the number, but it is fast. Very fast). To de-orbit, you have to somehow brake from orbital velocity (17,000 mph or so at orbit) to whatever reasonable speed is required for landing. I understand this is done via atmospheric friction. If you orbit at 17,000 and land at 150, your delta-V is now 16850. That's a lot of heat to have to deal with.

Whoever does make an orbital vehicle will have to address this problem.