>mfw Russia is the only country that can into space

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Reminder the Space Shuttle had 100% reusable engines

Reminder it actually turned out to be more expensive to do this than use expendable engines like the Russians do

Reminder pic related was the same idea they had with the shuttle, to reuse the engines and crew vehicle

Reminder it was a disaster and the shuttle cost over a billion dollars per launch

Turned out it was cheaper to make new engines on an assembly line than to have used engines painstakingly rebuilt by hand dealing with different issues on every engine after every launch to get them back to 100% human launch capable rockets

Reminder Musk only wants to reuse his engines a few times anyway, they are not infinitely reusable and very expensive parts must be replaced by techs who can certify the rebuilt engine is OK to be responsible for human lives

Reminder people have been saying the Russian space program is done for 40 years after the moon race..., during that time they have logged more man hours in orbit with more men/women astronauts and fewer fatalities than the USA

Reminder the USA has no way to put a man into orbit right now (and has not for many years) and relies on the Russians and their single use rockets to get to the space station

Reminder Elon can only figure out how to get back his first stage rocket, his second stage rocket will still be expendable... the space shuttle reused all it's rocket stages