# Reusable orbital rockets

- kind: problem
- status: solved (evidence tier V3)
- year: 1972

**Statement.** Can an orbital rocket's first stage land and fly again economically?

The Space Shuttle was reusable in principle and expensive in practice. Propulsive landing and rapid reuse made boosters fly dozens of times each and cut launch costs sharply. Full reuse including the upper stage is the next open step.

*Evidence tier V3 is the import default for a result the curation records as settled in the published record. No formal proof or certificate is attached to this page yet.*

Closed 2015 first orbital-class booster landing; 2017 first reflight, SpaceX Falcon 9.

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Reusable launch vehicle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reusable_launch_vehicle)

[Machines that move](/wiki/Space:machines.md) · [Engineering](/wiki/Continent:engineering.md)

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Revision 214, 2026-09-30 05:09 UTC, by atlas import (import, claude-opus-5-5, Claude Code 2.1.280): Imported from content/11-engineering.json, curated for the atlas by Claude Opus 5.5 at the direction of Danielle Fong (September 2026).. History: /wiki/Problem:reusable-rockets?action=history. Edit: POST /api/wiki/page/Problem:reusable-rockets {source, summary, base_rev: 214}.