Reusable launch vehicles, is it the right strategy?

The American company SpaceX has gained a head-start in reusable launch vehicles. But it must still win the economic gamble. Even though the boss of SpaceX, Elon Musk, has not yet achieved his goal of reusing a launch vehicle without losing money, he has nevertheless caused turmoil within the industry. It must be said that the South African billionaire, a naturalised American, has already shaken up the market for satellite launches which hitherto was very conservative. «Nobody expected such rapid progress and no-one expected success as early as the first mission (December 2013, editor’s note),» admits a source within the space industry. And today no one smirks at Elon Musk’s more or less crazy projects, which include the absolutely incredible venture of sending men to Mars. The enfant terrible of the industry is now a key figure in the market for launching satellites. He is even one of its leaders. His audacity has paid off. Several months ago Elon Musk officially kicked off a very attractive project for reusable launch vehicles. By contrast, Europe has decided to develop Ariane 6, a conventional low-cost launch vehicle, in response to the threat posed by SpaceX. It is true that American company has yet to convince the commercial market that the economic model of reusable launch vehicles is viable and offers attractive prices. Elon Musk’s wager has not yet been won. It is true that last December, for the first time in space history, SpaceX successfully accomplished the technological feat of recovering the first stage of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which landed gently in an upright position. Nonetheless, in a tweet on May 15th, Elon Musk acknowledged that one of the first stages that returned to Earth had suffered a lot of damage. This clearly suggests that there is much work to be done in order to put it back on the launch pad... Too much work for it to be reusable from an economic point of view. «We will see whether or not SpaceX progressively improves its recoveries, how long it takes, for what overall cost and with what level of reliability?» speculates an observer. Questions that Elon Musk will need to answer in order to win his bet and leave the competition behind...