How reusable rocket boosters work

The reusability of Falcon 9's first stage rocket has slashed launch costs

Unlike older rockets left to sink in the ocean, the first stage was designed to steer itself back for a controlled landing on a sea-based barge. Refurbishment of these components are half the cost of building new.

Elon Musk founded SpaceX after being unable to purchase affordable rockets abroad

The company simplified manufacturing and revolutionized space travel by focusing on in-house production and reusability. Their Falcon 9 rocket's ability to land vertically and be partially reused led to 91 successful launches in 2023.

A primer on SpaceX's primary rockets and spacecraft

SpaceX has developed several lines of rockets, from its workhorse Falcon 9 to the visionary Super Heavy rocket of the company's Starship designed for massive payloads. Each iteration costs millions of dollars and came with scientific and economic challenges and several are no longer in development. Learn more about the company's roster of rockets and craft here.

SpaceX successfully caught a rocket booster in mid-air

As part of the fifth test flight of its Starship system, the Super Heavy booster used high-speed navigation systems, grid fins, and Raptor engines to steer itself onto the mechanical arms of a tower called Mechazilla.

A lunar 'satellite catapult' revives a 50-year-old idea for launching rockets

Elon Musk has proposed building a mass driver on the moon to fling satellites into space, exploiting low gravity to cut fuel and costs. The concept dates to 1970s space-settlement studies, highlighting how older industry ideas are resurfacing amid today's AI and space-infrastructure race.

Space tourism rockets emit up to 100 times more CO₂ per passenger than airplanes

Rocket launches release significant amounts of water vapor, nitrous oxide, and rocket propellants, which generate greenhouse gases and air pollutants. High-altitude emissions can persist for years, affecting the ozone layer.

The basic science of rockets

How do rockets work? What is the science behind a rocket launch? How does a rocket go into space? In this short and simple video, we discuss the science of rocket propulsion and what takes to get these vehicles into orbit.

Watch the hypersonic flight of a reusable aircraft

Stratolaunch completed a second hypersonic flight of its Talon-A2 autonomous vehicle, showcasing reusable hypersonic aircraft capabilities. The aircraft carried payloads and Department of Defense experiments while achieving Mach 5 speeds.

Explore a timeline of advancements in American aviation

From the Wright brothers' flight of the first powered plane in 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to SpaceX's debut of the Falcon 9 rocket in 2010 with reusable boosters, this interactive shows off the technological evolution of flight, from mechanical propulsion to ballistic spaceflight. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

As of 2022, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and SpaceX are the primary space tourism companies

Blue Origin offers 11-minute suborbital flights for $28M, while Virgin Galactic provides a 90-minute suborbital flight for $450,000. SpaceX offers orbital flights for $55M, including trips to the International Space Station, and plans to offer civilians trips to the moon by 2030.

The Space Launch System: NASA's most powerful rocket ever

The Space Launch System is intended to be the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA. Possible missions include returning to the moon and perhaps even reaching Mars. This speculative and mostly silent video uses animation to explore the inner workings of the SLS, showing it launching and in space flight.

Scientists have proposed using lasers to push space trash into Earth's atmosphere

Such projects would allow most debris to burn up and no longer pose a risk to active satellites, telescopes, and astronauts on space stations. Enacting these plans would require substantial investments from private and governmental space agencies and overcoming international laws that prevent the removal of another country's space equipment.

Experts ponder nuclear rockets to send humans to Mars

Nuclear rocket technology might be the fastest, safest way to get to the red planet. But if NASA wants to go, it should start development now.

The International Space Station is slowly falling due to atmospheric drag

To stay in orbit, the largest human-made object in space needs periodic rocket boosts to maintain its orbital speed and height. Its solar panels collect enough energy to power over 60 average US homes each year.

Nuclear-powered missiles replace chemical combustion with energy from nuclear fission

In these systems, energy is added to an airstream, which passes through a nozzle to generate thrust. Because the amount of energy released per unit mass of nuclear fuel is millions of times larger than that of chemical propellants, nuclear missiles can travel faster and farther with less fuel.

How to make your own DIY ionic thruster

In the search for more efficient, sustainable types of propulsive thrust, scientists have dabbled in developing engines using ionic thrust, a type of propulsion using the attractive force of oppositely charged ions. First introduced by a Russian...

NASA economic impact (and budget history)

It's estimated that for every dollar NASA spends on its programs, $8 is produced in US economic growth. With a 2023 budget of roughly $25 billion, that means NASA helped create $200 billion in economic value. The administration's investments pay off so massively due to the technologies it develops, many of which become commercially appealing. Dive into the economic impact of NASA's development here.

Gravity assists are crucial for space travel beyond Mars

By traveling near a moving celestial object, a passing object can gain or lose speed and change direction due to the acceleration provided by their mutual gravity. Some missions are planned around spacecraft performing multiple assists, or slingshots, to reduce fuel requirements for long-distance travel.

Understanding why suction cups rely on Earth's atmosphere to work

When pressed against a surface, air is squeezed out of a sealed volume, causing the internal pressure to drop below the surrounding atmospheric pressure, and this imbalance creates the "sticking." For this reason, astronauts do not use suction cups or related technologies to stay on spacecraft during spacewalks.

A modified Boeing 747 ferried Space Shuttles across the country

NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft—two specially modified Boeing 747s—were used to transport Space Shuttles between landing sites and launch facilities, playing a critical logistical role throughout the shuttle program.

The International Space Station is made up of two incompatible segments

Before collaborating due to financial difficulties, Russia and the US had independently been working on developing their own space stations. A specialized adapter was created to connect the Zarya and Unity modules and create the foundation for the ISS.

Hear how the first moon landing was saved

This podcast series explores Apollo 11 through firsthand stories from the engineers, mission controllers, and astronauts who made the moon landing possible, culminating in 13 minutes of NASA archive audio leading up to the landing.

The Challenger disaster exposed flawed priorities in NASA's leadership

Reported issues with the shuttle's O-rings were deemed "acceptable risks" to proceed with the launch and ensure President Reagan could mention the success of Challenger in his State of the Union address. Postponing the launch would have also limited the publicity of educator Christa McAuliffe's live lesson from space.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

Jet fuel is expensive—which is one reason why it's tough to make an airline profitable

Jet fuel is typically a commercial airline's second-largest expense, second only to labor. Oil prices can be volatile—there have been recent significant increases in jet fuel prices given the 2026 Iran conflict, for instance.

Stem cells can reboot the ability of cells to repair themselves

Stem cells—special cells that can self-renew and evolve into new cell types—may provide a path to address aging. Instead of repairing aging cells, stem cells can replace a cell's "repair kit," effectively rebooting the internal processes of tissues to a more youthful state.

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Before the current East Wing ballroom project, only two White House renovations in the past 100 years cost more than $10M.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Coral polyps reproduce via broadcast spawning, where entire reefs simultaneously release reproductive cells for about one hour, once a year.

See the evolution of Ebola vaccine and treatment development.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.