Progress Manifests as Boringness

What was once spectacular is now mundane. What was once inventive is now rote. Reusable rocket launches are officially boring.

Just a few years ago rocket launches were perhaps just as exciting (if not more exciting) than they have been for the past fifty or more years. Then the excitement suddenly and perhaps unexpectedly, dropped off a cliff.

You probably haven't watched a SpaceX + Starlink rocket launch recently. During one of these dime-a-dozen events, a highly reusable, two-stage rocket lofts a bevy of high tech satellites, each capable of laser-based inter-satellite communication, designed for the purpose of carrying broadband internet to the farthest reaches of our planet. Following this mundane event, the 1st stage defies science fiction writing by landing like a pencil very much does not. That particular booster has probably repeated this whole process a dozen times before, with similarly little fanfare. And will again some weeks later.

SpaceX has taken all of this magic and made it boring through perfect execution.

Good for them. And good for us.