Falcon Largely Reusable and Starship Seeks 100% Reusability: Elon Musk

SpaceX's Falcon rockets are 80% reusable today, and the company hopes its Starship heavy rocket will reach 100% reusability, though that will take "extreme effort," CEO Elon Musk posted Thursday on X. He said the biggest reusability hurdle is the orbital return heat shield. The Space Shuttle's heat shield needed six months of refurbishment, "so was not reusable by any reasonable definition of the word," Musk said. "This will take a few kicks at the can to solve and requires building an entirely new supply chain for low-cost, high-volume and yet high-reliability heat shield tiles, but it can be done." SpaceX said this week the next Starship test launch could come June 5.