NASA landed a rocket in 1996.
> The original DC-X was built in 21 months for a cost of $60 million.[18] This is equivalent to $101 million in present-day terms.[19]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-X#Flight_...
> The original DC-X was built in 21 months for a cost of $60 million.[18] This is equivalent to $101 million in present-day terms.[19]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-X#Flight_...
Starship uses revolutionary new Full-Flow Staged Combustion engines that have never flown.
Starship is testing a never used before method of reentry and guidence.
Starship is testing a never used before method of landing.
Starship is testing never used before method of heat shielding tiles and how to attach them.
Starship is not just testing the ship itself, but also the mass manufacturing line for Starship. Its not a test mule, its a mass production pipeline that is being designed at the same time as the product it produces.
Will likely be the first Orbital rocket to use Methlox fuel.
The DC-X was a fundamental dead-end, many of its engineers went to BlueOrigin and worked on New Shepard, a sub-orbital only hopper.
SpaceX Grasshopper is more comparable to the DC-X then the DC-X to Starship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZDkItO-0a4
That program likely cost less then $60 million.
The truth is that the “landing a rocket” part is the least interesting here, Starship is a 150t capacity reusable space vehicle that will reduce launch costs by a factor of 100x, and is to be produced en masse like airplanes.