No, they are carbon composite. The fairings are troublesome for several reasons. They have to be very large because they have to be larger than the payload, th

No, they are carbon composite. The fairings are troublesome for several reasons. They have to be very large because they have to be larger than the payload, they have to be very strong because they have to protect the payload through the atmosphere at supersonic speeds, and they have to be very light because they ride on the upper stage, and their weight takes away from payload weight (not quite at a 1:1 ratio but not too far from it). So they are expensive because expensive fairings allow you to launch even more expensive payloads. And in principle they are not terribly difficult to recover. The re-entry speeds are fairly low since they are only ever sub-orbital, and they are very light for their size so re-entry heating isn't a major challenge. But aerodynamically controlling them in a reliably manner to a precise location seems to be a problem.