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If I am not mistaken, the 'stubs' were added as a fuel saving measure while maintaining landing precision and cross range ability. The added redundancy in case of partial propulsion/manoeuvring failure was a handy bonus, especially when it came to the latter attribute. Which leads us to another probable major reason for their addition. Thanks to it's inherent ability to relocate itself between geographically separated landing and launch sites via suborbital hops, interest began to mount in the possibility of using the planned full sized Delta Clipper as not only a SSTO but also as an honest to God suborbital transport for passengers and cargo. So the redundant control ability would have helped to assuage potential FAA concerns.


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