A lot of people have tried to retrieve boosters. The Shuttle approach is suboptimal (solid boosters can't be throttled/relit/extinguished easily, the sea is ev

A lot of people have tried to retrieve boosters. The Shuttle approach is suboptimal (solid boosters can't be throttled/relit/extinguished easily, the sea is evil, turnaround times are huge). ESA and the Russians and NASA have all thought about glide-back boosters and got mired in complexity. The new-space approach of "just the rocket, plus better control systems" is paying off, but it does take modern kit and thinking.