Watching it was incredible, however not surprising. This is just an evolution of what SpaceX has gotten good at. They're "just" changed the point where it stops, with less stress on the rocket and less parts to fail (the landing gear). I know there's a lot of complexity behind it working, this isn't downplaying the effort. It's applauding how they're slowly making reusable rockets common.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The thing is they're the only people working on reusable rockets even NASA have given up with the idea (after barely even trying).

So every milestone increases the likelihood that will get more reusable rockets now that they've proven the concept in sound.

[–] Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I wouldn’t say they are the only ones, New Glen is supposed to be a partially reusable rocket.

Others like Rocket Lab are working on smaller “printable” rockets. So there is definitely a lot of innovation going on in the industry.