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In July, SpaceX successfully soft-landed a Falcon 9 first stage in the Atlantic. Now that they've proved they can do it, they're going to try over land next. S
by ef4 12y ago
In July, SpaceX successfully soft-landed a Falcon 9 first stage in the Atlantic. Now that they've proved they can do it, they're going to try over land next.
So they're already very close to the dream of a liquid booster that you can just land, refuel, and relaunch.
- rsynnott 12y agoThe Soviets were also very close to that dream for some time, without ever getting it economical. The US was kind of doing it with solid boosters for decades, but again the economics were dubious; it would practically have been cheaper to build new ones (and I believe that's the plan for the SLS; the solid boosters won't be recovered). Don't get me wrong, it'll be great if they manage it, but I don't think it's as easy as people seem to assume.