Musk’s SpaceX doubles down on method for cheaper rocket launches

Elon Musk’s rocket company is about take another step toward making space flight cheaper.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. on Wednesday will double down on the concept of recycling spacecraft that the company has flown and landed back on Earth. In a mission for NASA, SpaceX will reuse both a rocket and a capsule that it’s fired off before.

Making space missions work more like commercial airline flights dramatically reduces costs — less money gets wasted discarding rockets and spacecraft after single launches. SpaceX’s success in this pursuit has made it one of the world’s most richly valued private companies.