The Shuttle was the only serious attempt. And even then, they dropped the largest structural part and used solids that can't practically be reused anyway. The D

The Shuttle was the only serious attempt. And even then, they dropped the largest structural part and used solids that can't practically be reused anyway. The DC-X is just a research project, that they would ever develop a reusable launch was basically fantasy. The same in other countries, very little actual large investments. The Soviet Shuttle was even less reusable then the US one. And that was actually pretty smart of them. So I don't think that were that many real failed attempts. There was practically speaking one real attempt.