I predict that once we have operational suborbital vehicles, one of the markets will be people willing to pay for one-way rides.

Heh. Back in '97 when I went to work for VelaTech (where we proposed vehicles broadly similar to White Knight/SS1) the VP of engineering, Pat Kelley, said that all engineers would be required to fly at least once. I replied that I did't just want to fly, I wanted to get out at apogee...

Of course, I'll have to get this pesky L5 disc repaired and get current again, but the urge is still there. One of these days it'll happen.

awesome. i expect the marine corps and the us army's airborne divisions will be interested too (see link at my name)

Sounds awesome. The link to Columbia is a little tenuous, though. Jumping out at near zero speed and jumping out at mach 17 are two entirely different beasts.

What about an escape pod? One could be based on the Apollo capsule, scrapping the gadgets necessary for flight but keeping (at the very least) the parachute, heat shield, and minimal life support. A shuttle could carry two, theoretically enough to facilitate an entire crew. Pod capacity would have to be four; considering that the original seating was designed for protection against the G-force of liftoff, it should be possible to redesign the seating to squeeze four into the capsule. Or a pod could be developed from scratch, borrowing some of the concepts of the capsule.

The trick is finding an appropriate location on the shuttle where the pods can be successfully launched at high speed. Obviously that spot would have to be somewhere at the rear of the craft. Perhaps a (heavily heat-insulated) single pod could be mounted in between the rear thrusters. Or one to each side. Or one missile-shaped pod at each wingtip. That last idea would preserve the aerodynamics of the craft, but you'd have to design a passageway inside each wing that can allow relatively easy access to the pods. At any rate you're looking at a major redesign of the shuttle - which ain't a bad idea.

Canadian Arrow has had this idea up for quite some time too.
http://www.canadianarrow.com/spacediving.htm

BTW, im a skydiver myself, a reuseable rocket with quick turnaround time ( quick refuel with cheap fuel ) that could take around ten-twenty people to 4+km of altitude would be a total hoot for skydivers.
Majority of jumps around here are done from turboprops, L-410 for instance. It wastes very much valuable time climbing to required altitude, and for people who do 200+ jumps a season the ticket cost is quite significant. Its mainly driven by fuel expenses.