The Falcon 9 is strongly based on the Falcon 1, which had its kinks worked out over the course of several unsuccessful launches. If anything, this is a testamen

The Falcon 9 is strongly based on the Falcon 1, which had its kinks worked out over the course of several unsuccessful launches. If anything, this is a testament to SpaceX's approach of failing cheaply, and re-using hardware that they know works. Really, I don't think there's any simple thing you can point to and say "That's what they're missing". It's just too complex an undertaking for that. In any case, I wish them all the best of luck.