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They said it could not be done. They scoffed at the very Idea of a private space company. The company had a tumultuous start in the early 2000's as their first 3 launches ended in failure to their critics delight. But they had somehow managed to scrounge up just enough money for one more do-or-die launch and on 28 September 2008 SpaceX became the first private rocket company to reach orbit. This was not enough to silence the critics. Nor was it enough when in 2010 they became the first private company to dock with the international space station. By that time they had delivered enough private satellites to orbit that NASA could trust them with this kind of mission and they would be foolish not to as the cost per launch of a SpaceX rocket was more than 7 times less (~$60 million vs ~$450 million) than that of prior government contractors. On the 28th of June this year; SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket exploded suffered a rapid unscheduled disassembly shortly after launch. It was the first blemish on SpaceX's otherwise flawless record with their state of the art Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket is updated every other mission with the latest aerospace tech, upgrades coming at a pace previously unheard of in space exploration. For example the Soyuz spacecraft used to send astronauts to the International space station is virtually unchanged since the 1960's. (I am so glad that a government is not making my phone!) The critics were quick to exploit the tragedy. It seemed as if they were right all along, it was only a matter of time before all that cost cutting caught up with them. Its was only a matter of time before they went too far, typical capitalist greed. Through all that noise, for 6 months SpaceX diligently combed though the wreckage trying to pinpoint the most likely cause of the mishap. And through this process upgraded almost every facet of the rocket, ultimately increasing its power output by 33 percent. They vowed not only to return to flight but to do so while in hot pursuit of the holy grail of rocketry. See, the problem with a rocket is that it is really expensive and you can only use it once. $60 million a pop (or $450 million from NASA: good luck with that). But, What if you could reuse a rocket much like a plane. That would change the game, lowering the cost of space travel dramatically. SpaceX has had this goal since its inception, they were ridiculed for it and in fact have failed many times trying to land a rocket as a secondary objective after a successful primary mission. But they persevered, the CEO of SpaceX would often say "go down to first principles and tell me why it cant be done?" Let us take a moment to appreciate human ingenuity, Mathematics, Thermodynamics, Science, or just call it rational Philosophy in action. Not political, economic and spiritual mysticism, what have they done lately?