SpaceX’s Starship rocket system reached several milestones in its second test flight before the rocket booster and spacecraft exploded over the Gulf of Mexico.
SpaceX’s Starship rocket system reached several milestones in its second test flight before the rocket booster and spacecraft exploded over the Gulf of Mexico.
The Space Shuttle was a "reusable rocket". And we generally tried to recover most of the boosters, where feasible.
And the Space Shuttle very much highlighted the issue with "reusable rockets". When your maintenance and safety requirements are comparable to building the thing in the first place, you tend to cut corners. And then people die.
But, again, Musk did nothing other than sign checks. The actual scientists and engineers are the ones who have done all of this and "puzzled" everything together.
The space shuttle was never meant to be 'reusable' but rather 'refurbishable.' The big difference is that Starship is designed from the ground up for rapid reusability, without manually checking each of the 24000 unique tiles of the STS orbiter.
With the stainless steel construction, SpaceX is aiming to use their new upper stage up to 3 times a day with only refueling and a basic check in between. It is a complete paradigm shift from traditional rockets.
Look up the job of an entrepreneur.