History of Space Exploration: Chapter 10, Exercise 1 — Possible Solution ====================================================================== ANSWER The reusable-vehicles article says reusability reduces cost by eliminating per-flight manufacturing, but the benefit can be diminished by recovery and refurbishment, and reusable stages carry extra weight. It gives limited quantitative evidence, and the SpaceX article gives no per-launch cost. Chapter 7 showed a reusable Shuttle at $450 million per launch (2011). BETTER STATEMENT "Reuse of first stages is now routine, but the sources do not quantify the saving."