Some of you may have been following our recent attempts to vertically land the first stage of our Falcon 9 rocket back on Earth.
There was this attempt in January, followed by this one in April.
CRS-6 first stage approaching Just Read the InstructionsBut were not doing this just to produce cool videos. Our goal is to radically reduce the cost of accessing space by producing a fully and rapidly reusable rocket system.
Think about it: We dont throw away an airplane after a one-way trip from LA to New York. Each new plane costs about the same as one of our Falcon 9 rockets, but takes off and lands many times per day and is likely to conduct tens of thousands of flights over its lifetime. Yet when it comes to space travel, rockets fly only onceeven though the rocket itself represents the majority of launch cost.
