SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch next week may feel like déjà vu as the company attempts to re-fly a used rocket for the first time, according to Bloomberg.
If successful, the launch would mark an important SpaceX milestone on the way to rocket reusability, which could slash costs of space travel as rockets become more like airplanes.
“If you can get to space more economically, then it opens a frontier for what you can do in terms of scientific research, exploration and sending humans and robots to other worlds,” said Phil Larson, a former White House advisor on space and innovation and SpaceX senior manager.
Right now the company’s Falcon 9 rocket costs $54 million. But fuel for each mission only costs $200,000, SpaceX said on its website.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred if rockets could be reused effectively like airplanes.