There are many factors that hold back our exploration of space, but one of the big ones is pure economics. It's really expensive to put things into space. One reason as an article from the Verge put it is "up until now, practically all orbital rockets have been expendable, so they’re basically thrown away once they launch into space. That means an entirely new rocket — which can cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars to make — has to be built for each mission to orbit." Yesterday Space X launched and landed the first recycled rocket in a real life situation. They'd tested the Falcon 9 many times, but this was the first real launch with a real payload. And it went off without a hitch. This is huge! Not only will this make launches much cheaper, but it will make them happen more often! Right now they say they need four months between reuses to get the rocket back up to snuff and tested, but time and experience will shrink that quickly. Could this be the start of a new space age? I can hope!
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