"Reusability beats physics breakthroughs for cost reduction When asked whether new theoretical physics could deliver the next order-of-magnitude improvement in spaceflight, Musk was direct: 'There's no breakthrough in theoretical physics required — just brilliant engineering.' His reasoning was grounded in concrete numbers: a fully reusable Starship could potentially cost $1–2 million per launch instead of hundreds of millions, reducing cost-per-ton to orbit by a factor of 100. The analogy he used — 'if you had to buy a new car every time you went for a drive it would be very expensive' — makes the principle portable: in any capital-intensive field, full asset reuse is almost always a more actionable cost lever than waiting for a scientific revolution. Source: Elon Musk, Lex Fridman Podcast, Elon Musk"