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Dava Newman: Reusable Rockets


Transcript

- Is there something else that you've been excited about like reusable rockets perhaps that you've seen in the last few years? - Yeah, well, the reusability, you had the reusability is awesome. I mean, it's just the best. Now we have to remember the shuttle was a reusable vehicle. - Yes.

- Which shuttle is an amazing, it's an aerospace engineer. You know, I mean, the shuttle is still, this is the most gorgeous, elegant, extraordinary design of a space vehicle. It was reusable, it just wasn't affordable. But the reusability of it was really critical 'cause we flew it up, it did come back.

So the notion of reusability, I think absolutely. Now what we're doing with we, you know, like global we, but with SpaceX and Blorgen, setting the rockets up, recovering the first stages where if they can regain 70% cost savings, that's huge. And just seeing the control, you know, being in control and dynamics, just seeing that rocket come back and land.

- Oh yeah, that's-- - It never gets old, it's exciting every single time you look at it and say, "That's magic." So it's so cool. - To me, the landing is where I stand up, start clapping, just the control. - Yeah, just the algorithm, just the control algorithms. And hitting that landing, it's, you know, it's gymnastics for rocket ships.

But to see these guys stick a landing, it's just wonderful. So every time, like I say, every time I see, you know, the reusability and the rockets coming back and landing so precisely, it's really exciting. So it is, actually, that's a game changer. We are in a new era of lower costs and a lot, the higher frequency.

And it's the world, not just NASA. It's many nations are really upping their frequency of launches. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)