Falcon Largely Reusable and Starship Seeks 100% Reusability: Elon Musk
SpaceX's Falcon rockets are 80% reusable today, and the company hopes its Starship heavy rocket will reach 100% reusability, though that will take "extreme effort," CEO Elon Musk posted Thursday on X. He said the biggest reusability hurdle is the…
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orbital return heat shield. The Space Shuttle's heat shield needed six months of refurbishment, "so was not reusable by any reasonable definition of the word," Musk said. "This will take a few kicks at the can to solve and requires building an entirely new supply chain for low-cost, high-volume and yet high-reliability heat shield tiles, but it can be done." SpaceX said this week the next Starship test launch could come June 5.