Recylced rockets, Bitcoin’s civil war, Facebook is a copycat
Hello, Quartz Index readers!
The commercial space race kicked into high gear last night: for the first time, SpaceX launched and landed a rocket that had already been in space. Reusing rockets dramatically lowers the cost of a launch, which allows private space companies to charge less for a mission.
Rocket engineers have previously tried to design recyclable orbital boosters—NASA’s Space Shuttle was reusable, but expensive refurbishment between flights made frequent reuse a costly proposition. SpaceX is the first organization to successfully use the technology, and Blue Origin is currently working on its own reusable orbital rocket.
Recycled rockets haven’t been a top priority for aerospace companies because the low number of yearly launches. But with last night’s successful landing, SpaceX is betting that if it can lower the cost, the customers will come, opening up a new chapter in commercial space exploration. —Molly Rubin
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