We could be seeing the start of an economic boom in space. But so far, none of these ideas have made it far from the drawing board. What\u2019s holding them back?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Reusing rockets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
First and foremost, it\u2019s hard to make profit in space. Moving \u201cstuff\u201d (cargo, equipment and people) from Earth into space is an expensive process<\/a>. This is because we haven\u2019t learnt how to recycle rockets yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the launch of Sputnik started the space age 60 years ago<\/a>, most of the spacecraft that have been launched are Expendable Launch Vehicles (ELVs)<\/a>, which only fly once. After delivering their payload, they either come crashing back down to Earth<\/a>, burn up in the atmosphere<\/a>, or simply remain in orbit as \u201cspace junk\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time a new payload needs to be sent into space, a new ELV has to be built, costing millions of dollars. Imagine how much an Uber would cost if the driver had to buy a new car for every trip!<\/p>\n\n\n\n It might seem that the obvious solution is to reuse rockets. The idea of Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLVs) isn\u2019t new<\/a>, but reusing rockets has proven tricky in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first real attempt at making an RLV was NASA\u2019s Space Shuttle program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Space Shuttle fleet was meant to lower the cost of space transportation by being partially reusable. But rather than lowering costs, the program increased them<\/a>. The complexity and risk of the Space Shuttle fleet made maintaining and operating them expensive. And when the 30-year program ended in 2011, it may have seemed like the argument for RLVs ended with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But proponents of RLVs were undeterred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few months after the final Space Shuttle flight, SpaceX<\/a>, a start-up company founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk announced a plan to make its Falcon 9 rocket reusable<\/a>. SpaceX began working on ways to recover and reuse the Falcon 9\u2019s booster stage, the largest, most expensive part of the rocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/enlightenment-demo.onedesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/10\/marcus-urbenz-4iQYGdFWmlk-unsplash-1024x575.jpg\")
<\/a>Recovering and recycling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n