Part 5/11:
The first successful landing on December 21, 2015, marked a historic moment: a rocket booster returning from space and landing autonomously on a drone ship in the ocean. By April 8, 2016, SpaceX achieved a perfect landing at sea, cementing its capability to reuse hardware. This innovation transformed spaceflight economics, enabling SpaceX to now dominate cargo launches, typically delivering about 90% of space cargo in 2024, at a fraction of previous costs.