iancmceachern parent
We were sending stuff into orbit far before we could reliably, reusabley, land a rocket on its tail.
It’s the combination of the two that’s challenging though. The force of a first stage boosting an upper stage to orbit is a lot different than a carnival ride style single stage apogee ride.
Recovering and reusing something that went up and down
And something that went orbital at supersonic speed
Is not even remotely the same universe
McDonell Douglas have done up and down since 1992
SpaceX is the only entity that have recovered and reused any rocket parts after sending payloads orbital
Wake me up when someone have done even a test that resembles orbital recovery
Until then all the EDS in here has zero power over reality