were recovered. Even today SpaceX can't recover the upper stage engine. Now we all know SS eventually turned out to be a failure because the reusability was good only on paper. But I'd caution everybody - we still don't know if SpaceX reusability is any better economically.

So as much as I'm space enthusiast, I'd advise some humility about this launch. The US space program is really in a bad place right now IMHO and yes, in all that political crap and bureaucratic immobility, the SpaceX looks like a star. Especially compared to Boeing.

But in a larger perspective it really is not that impressive, in fact in many ways a huge downgrade from the Space Shuttle (which was developed in 70's and perhaps using modern tech could be made much better as well).