Reusable Launch System

How much does a mission to space cost? One of the least expensive missions, the Lunar Prospector, cost $63 million. The most expensive, the International Space Station, cost $100 billion. With prices that high, space travel isn’t exactly efficient. But some people believe this can change. If vehicles could be reused, for instance, instead of having to be created from scratch or undergoing serious refurbishment for each new mission, that would knock some dollars off the price tag. And that’s exactly what Elon Musk of SpaceX wants to do. Of course, this isn’t a brand new idea. In fact, the whole concept of the space shuttle program was just what it sounded like—being able to shuttle back and forth to space in the same spaceship. Unfortunately, refurbishing the shuttle components was pricey and time-consuming. But shortly after NASA ended the shuttle program in 2011, Jeff Bezos’s company Blue Origin launched an incredible rocket. It took off vertically and landed vertically after reaching