reusable launch vehicle

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a launch vehicle designed to be recovered after delivering its payload to orbit and reflown on subsequent missions, in contrast to expendable launch vehicles that are destroyed or discarded after a single use; reusability dramatically reduces the per-launch cost of accessing space if the recovery and refurbishment costs are sufficiently low relative to the cost of building a new rocket; SpaceX pioneered modern rocket reusability with the Falcon 9, which recovers its first stage booster by flying it back to a landing pad or drone ship at sea and has reflown boosters more than twenty times; SpaceX's Starship is designed for full reusability of both stages; NASA's Space Shuttle was the first partially reusable orbital launch system, though its refurbishment costs proved so high that it was ultimately no cheaper than expendable alternatives