It's no secret that NASA continues to push the limits of space technology, often successfully completing multi-billion dollar missions on the first try. But this approach comes at a cost, and we’re not just talking about taxpayers’ wallets. It can take years from the initial idea to the first real-scale testing of a new technology.

However, this traditional space model is rapidly changing due to the emergence of new space companies and startups such as SpaceX and RocketLab. As a federal agency, NASA must deal with politics, and its budget depends largely on the U.S. Congress. In addition, its public image is also very important, and every failure can have serious consequences for current or future projects.

Private companies have much more room to take risks. Take SpaceX as an example. Billionaire Elon Musk's space company has spent a rocket - or millions of dollars - in exchange for valuable data and faster development than NASA could even dream of.

Dr. Phil Metzger, a planetary scientist and space technologist from the University of Central Florida who previously worked for NASA, has now shared a good example of how this "fly first and see" approach is inferior -- at least in some cases.

In December 2015, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully landed for the first time. If you have watched the flight of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, you must have heard of the so-called reentry burn. When the rocket enters the denser part of the atmosphere, the Falcon 9 rocket activates three of its nine Merlin 1D engines and slows the rocket down, with the engine plume essentially acting as a heat shield.

The rocket then shuts down its engines and reignites them one last time for a vertical landing - either on land or on an autonomous drone spacecraft in the ocean.

Dr. Metzger now tells a story on It was a brief conversation in the early days when SpaceX was just figuring out how to successfully land its space rockets. These attempts were conducted between 2013 and 2015.

"At NASA, we have planned a big project to study this problem. We are going to start with a lot of computer simulations. Then we will install a thruster on a high-speed rail car to shoot the plume in the direction of travel. Then we will drop the rocket from a high-altitude balloon," the young engineer explained.

Obviously, this process will be very long before the rocket can actually attempt supersonic reverse thrust. So it's no surprise that it never happened, and a big reason why is SpaceX.

"But Elon Musk tried it and it worked! So NASA canceled our entire project!" said the engineer. It's that simple.

As Metzger points out, SpaceX doesn't even need to land the rocket. The mere fact that the vehicle was able to slow down and return safely to the atmosphere was proof enough that the idea of ​​supersonic reverse thrust was feasible.

In December 2015, SpaceX successfully landed the first Falcon 9 on the coast of Cape Canaveral. A few months later, an unmanned spacecraft successfully landed for the first time. Since then, SpaceX has landed more rockets than crashed, significantly reducing the price of spaceflight.

Thanks to vertical landing and the Falcon 9's reusability, SpaceX is aiming for an insane 144 flights in 2024.