I was gearing up to try to explain how substantial the difference between what Blue Origin and SpaceX have achieved is, but luckily I found that Randall Munroe

I was gearing up to try to explain how substantial the difference between what Blue Origin and SpaceX have achieved is, but luckily I found that Randall Munroe has already explained it quite well[0]. Long story short -- a vertical takeoff and landing, reaching 100km with zero velocity, is a vastly simpler (and lower energy) problem than what the Falcon 9 is doing. [0]: https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/