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The space shuttle lol?

Are you not considering the fact that the huge external tank and the two SRBs were destroyed every time? Not to mention the insane costs of refurbishing each space shuttle, not the mention the insanely bad safety of the shuttle and the 14 astronauts who died in it!

Space shuttle, while cool, was really, really bad design, bad safety, and totally uneconomical. It was definitely cooler than Soyuz, but Soyuz was cheaper and more safe.

There's a reason the US abandoned space shuttle and had to beg the Russians to use Soyuz to send their astronauts to the space station.

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EncomLab 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The Shuttle program only failed to recover 4 SRB's out of 270 launched - and 2 of those were on Challenger.

Why should we care what you think if you can't get something that basic right?

	▲	saberience 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Recovering parts that landed in the literal salty ocean and need massive refurbishment to work again isn't really reusable in the same way that Falcon is though really is it? Trying to compare the two is honestly disingenuous. Calling Space Shuttle to what SpaceX have done really is like comparing chalk and cheese. Space shuttle cost (inflation adjusted) about 700M per launch(!!). Compared to Falcon 9 (10-20M). Superheavy and starship will start costing maybe 100M and rapidly decrease to maybe 10-20M also, but with more than double the carrying capacity of shuttle as well as in generally being far more capable.

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cma 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The SRBs could land in the ocean with parachutes and be recovered and refurbished. Shuttle wasn't economical as I mentioned, and definitely the space shuttle wasn't safe.

What you claimed was: "They have the first rocket ever made which can take payloads to orbit and then be reused." That was known as the space shuttle.

The ~$40 million tank was expendable so you are right it wasn't full reuse either. Starship jettisons parts too, I believe the hot staging ring? And the Falcon series throws away the whole upper stage.

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saberience 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Space Shuttle isn't a "rocket" like Falcon 9 is though, it couldnt go to space by itself. So saying its the first reusable rocket is really stretching credibility.

Falson 9 is a one piece rocket, as is Superheavy.

The Space Shuttle got to space with the help of other rockets, tank etc.

	▲	tsimionescu 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		And all those other parts were recovered after most flights and re-used after refurbishment on future flights. Since there's no other name than "Space Shuttle" for the whole rocket, it will do. Note that Starhsip is also ambiguous, as it refers both to the entire two stage rocket, but also just stage 2.