Part 1/8:
The Evolution of Rocketry: From Costly One-Off Missions to Reusable Technology
The history of spaceflight is a story of innovation driven by necessity, competition, and technological breakthroughs. In the early days, rocket launches were prohibitively expensive, making each mission a one-time event constrained by immense costs. Imagine booking a commercial airplane flight across the country, but being told you could only take that same airplane once—this is how space launches operated for decades. Each rocket was essentially a disposable vehicle, soaring into space only to be discarded afterward, which kept launch costs extraordinarily high.