SPACE X is an interesting development for lots of reasons. For me it best shows why many viewpoints about complex matters should be aired and seriously listened to. The Musk system tries to "reuse" whatever is economically do-able or even projected to be do-able --- throw out some seed for a later crop harvest. Our original NASA space shuttle planners didn't have the government support to do this.
The first casualty due to half-a$$ed support was throwing away all ideas of the direct Earth surface to Space vehicles. This left the awkward Big-Chemical-Dumb-Booster Rocket dinosaur thinking as the only way to keep the politicians happy. It's not at all obvious that an Earth-to-Space plane is impossible (without nuclear engines) but that was a no-go for NASA. Elon Musk is still stuck with the chemical booster limitation --- what he is doing is trying to maximize it.
Musk's system improves upon NASA (and Russia, the real competitor) by reusing all he can --- that includes not only the spacecraft but also the "bottom" heavylift stage (he still throws away the second stage.) He is hoping that when the reusability of the system includes both craft and heavy booster, and only second stage and fuel (plus refurbishing maintenance) are required for multiple flights, that we might drop the cost of a "seat" on the craft to 30% or less of current Russian prices --- and maybe a lot less.
All that is nice. Bravo Mr Musk and God's Speed. But we've still a very long way to go, and it is probably not going to be with this sort of system. I can imagine that we could sort of efficiently function with dummo chem boosters for a while IF we had a seriously sized Space Station close enough in orbit that Musk-like craft could reach it (them?) Then just maybe we could build better things (being already up there in zero gravity) and get some real spacecraft possibilities.
A minor odd thought: Musk seems to be a rebel, and anti a lot of AI "takeover" and government meddling in our lives --- he's a bit of a cult hero in that. But he is now operating a space satellite lifting service/business. THAT's CIA wheelhouse business. How are they going to co-exist?
