Enlarge / That’s a dirty Falcon 9 first stage rocket on the pad for the Amos-17 launch. (credit: SpaceX)

Less than two and a half years have passed since SpaceX first reused one of the first stages of its Falcon 9 rocket. But in the 28 months since the historic launch of the SES-10 communications satellite on a previously flown booster, SpaceX has made re-use routine. The company has now launched previously flown Falcon 9 first stages more than two dozen times.

As the novelty of vertically launching a rocket, vertically landing it, and then launching it again has worn off, there has been a pretty remarkable sea change in attitudes toward this technology. Whereas prior to the March 30, 2017 launch of the SES-10 satellite skeptics abounded, there are increasing numbers of converts to be found around the world.

Russian space officials have gone from dismissing the economics of reusable launch to creating a new design bureau with the express purpose of studying and developing reusable launch vehicles. For a long time, European rocket scientists, too, scoffed at the utility of reuse. Now they are also studying how to develop a Falcon 9-like rocket. Japan’s next rocket after its new H3 booster will likely be reusable, and a raft of Chinese firms are also studying—or perhaps simply copying—the SpaceX model.