Chris Hadfield

Right now, we have partially reusable rockets.

The first stage that gets you off the launch pad and above the air so that then you can go fast enough.

You know, in order to stay in orbit, you have to go five miles a second, eight kilometers a second.

You can't do that down here in the air.

There's just too much friction.

but as soon as you get above the air then you can go sideways and accelerate out to orbital speed and so that first stage that does the heavy lifting gets you off the pad gets you up uh you know where there's virtually no air and then it runs out of fuel and spits you off

Now those first stages, as most people on this call know, come back and land.

So you don't throw away any of the metal and you're really just paying for fuel.

And that has radically dropped the cost of access to space.

And not only is it SpaceX with their Dragon or their Falcon rocket that a lot of people know about, but Blue Origin has already launched once, but they're launching again within a few weeks.

Their big lifter that they named after one of the early astronauts, they call it New Glenn.

And they're trying to land that first stage out on a barge.

And then a New Zealand company, a real strong up and comer called Rocket Lab, has a new partially reusable rocket called Neutron that they're intending to launch from the east coast of the U.S.

before the end of the year.

So multiple Western companies competing with first stage reusable rockets.

And in China, they're doing the same thing.

But the real challenge,

change will be when we have 100% reusable rocket.

So you don't throw away any of your construction and sunk cost investment with each flight.

You can just bring the pieces back like an airline or fill them up with fuel and use them again.