Touchdown!

Lots of nations have launched rockets with varying payloads, and a few of us have launched rockets with people riding in them.

What hasn't been done so well is designing rockets that take off and then land so that they can be easily used again. For all of its spaceplane appearance, the U.S. space shuttle didn't make orbit without huge external engines and fuel tanks.

While the manned capsules of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions for the U.S. and Soyuz flights for the Russians returned to Earth with their crews aboard, they required massive boosters and engines that were use 'em and lose 'em. Most of the time these boosters were designed to splash in the ocean to avoid potential harm, and promptly sank. While some have been recovered in recent years, they're fit for museum display and little else.

Until now.

After a couple of failed attempts, the Space X company successfully landed its rocket booster from a recent mission to launch some communications satellites. Reusable rockets will reduce the cost of space missions as well as make it possible for them to happen more often: It takes less time to check out and repair an existing engine than build an entirely new one.

I may live long enough to see people return to the moon after all.