title: SpaceX reusable launch system development program

text: SpaceX is privately funding the development of orbital launch systems that can be reused many times, in a manner similar to the reusability of aircraft. SpaceX has been developing the technologies over several years to facilitate full and rapid reusability of space launch vehicles. The project's long-term objectives include returning a launch vehicle first stage to the launch site in minutes and to return a second stage to the launch pad following orbital realignment with the launch site and atmospheric reentry in up to 24 hours. SpaceX's long term goal is that both stages of their orbital launch vehicle will be designed to allow reuse a few hours after return.


text: The program was publicly announced in 2011. SpaceX first achieved a successful landing and recovery of a first stage in December 2015. The first re-flight of a landed first stage occurred in March 2017 with the second occurring in June 2017, that one only five months after the maiden flight of the booster. The third attempt occurred in October 2017 with the SES-11/EchoStar-105 mission. Reflights of refurbished first stages then became routine. In May 2021, B1051 became the first booster to power ten missions.


text: The reusable launch system technology was developed and initially used for the first stage of Falcon 9. After stage separation, the booster flips around, an optional boostback burn is done to reverse its course, a reentry burn, controlling direction to arrive at the landing site and a landing burn to affect the final low-altitude deceleration and touchdown.


text: SpaceX intended (from at least 2014) to develop technology to extend reusable flight hardware to second stages, a more challenging engineering problem because the vehicle is travelling at orbital velocity.


text: Second stage reuse is considered paramount to Elon Musk's plans to enable the settlement of Mars. Initial concepts to make the second stage of Falcon 9 reusable have been abandoned.


text: , SpaceX is actively developing the Starship system, with the intent to make it a fully-reusable two-stage launch vehicle, intended to replace all of its existing launch vehicles and spacecraft used for satellite delivery and human transport—Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon—and also eventually support flights to the Moon and Mars. In addition it could be used for point-to-point transportation on Earth.


text: SpaceX initially attempted to land the first stage of the Falcon 1 by parachute, but the stage did not survive re-entry into the atmosphere. They continued to experiment unsuccessfully with parachutes on the earliest Falcon 9 flights after 2010. SpaceX subsequently switched its focus to developing a powered descent landing system.


text: The broad outline of the reusable launch system was first publicly described in September 2011. SpaceX said it would attempt to develop powered descent and recovery of both Falcon 9 stagesa fully vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) rocket. The company produced a computer-animated video depicting a notional view of the first stage returning tail-first for a powered descent and the second stage with a heat shield, reentering head first before rotating for a powered descent. In September 2012, SpaceX began flight tests on a prototype reusable first stage with the suborbital Grasshopper rocket. Those tests continued into 2014, including testing of a second and larger prototype vehicle, F9R Dev1.


text: News of the Grasshopper test rocket had become public a few days earlier, when the US Federal Aviation Administration released a draft Environmental Impact Assessment for the SpaceX Test Site in Texas, and the space media had reported it. In May 2012, SpaceX obtained a set of atmospheric test data for the recovery of the Falcon 9 first stage based on 176 test runs in the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center wind tunnel test facility. The work was contracted for by SpaceX under a reimbursable Space Act Agreement with NASA.


text: In 2012, it was projected that the first-stage separation of a reusable Falcon 9 rocket would occur at a velocity of approximately rather than for an expendable Falcon 9, to provide the residual fuel necessary for the deceleration and turnaround maneuver and the controlled descent and landing.


text: In November 2012, CEO Elon Musk announced SpaceX's plans to build a second, much larger, reusable rocket system, this one to be powered by LOX/methane rather than LOX/RP-1 used on Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. The new system was to be "an evolution of SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster", and SpaceX reiterated their commitment to develop a breakthrough in vertical landing technology. By the end of 2012, the demonstration test vehicle, Grasshopper, had made three VTVL test flightsincluding a 29-second hover flight to on December 17, 2012. In early March 2013, SpaceX successfully tested Grasshopper for a fourth time when it flew to an altitude of over .


text: In March 2013, SpaceX announced that it would instrument and equip subsequent Falcon 9 first-stages as controlled descent test vehicles, with plans for over-water propulsively decelerated simulated landings beginning in 2013, with the intent to return the vehicle to the launch site for a powered landingpossibly as early as mid-2014. The April 2013 draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed SpaceX South Texas Launch Site includes specific accommodations for return of the Falcon 9 first-stage boosters to the launch site. Elon Musk first publicly referred to the reusable Falcon 9 as the Falcon 9-R in April 2013.


text: In September 2013, SpaceX successfully relit three engines of a spent booster on an orbital launch, and the booster re-entered the atmosphere at hypersonic speed without burning up. With the data collected from the first flight test of a booster-controlled descent from high altitude, coupled with the technological advancements made on the Grasshopper low-altitude landing demonstrator, SpaceX announced it believed it was ready to test a full land-recovery of a booster stage. Based on the positive results from the first high-altitude flight test, SpaceX advanced the expected date of a test from mid-2014 to early 2015, with the intention of doing so on the next Space Station cargo resupply flight pending regulatory approvals. That flight took place on April 18, 2014.


text: Musk stated in May 2013 that the goal of the program is to achieve full and rapid reusability of the first stage by 2015, and to develop full launch vehicle reusability following that as "part of a future design architecture". In September 2013, SpaceX said that if all aspects of the test program were successful and if a customer is interested, the first reflight of a Falcon 9 booster stage could happen as early as late 2014.


text: In February 2014, SpaceX made explicit that the newly defined super-heavy launch vehicle for what was then called Mars Colonial Transporter would also make use of the reusable technology.


text: This was consistent with Musk's strategic statement in 2012 that "The revolutionary breakthrough will come with rockets that are fully and rapidly reusable. We will never conquer Mars unless we do that. It'll be too expensive. The American colonies would never have been pioneered if the ships that crossed the ocean hadn't been reusable."


text: Also in May 2014, SpaceX publicly announced an extensive test program for a related reusable technology: a propulsively landed space capsule called "DragonFly". The tests were to be run in Texas at the McGregor Rocket Test Facility in 2014–2015.


text: In June 2014, COO Gwynne Shotwell clarified that all funding for development and testing of the reusable launch system technology development program is private funding from SpaceX, with no contribution by the US government.


text: For the first time, SpaceX stated in July 2014 that they are "highly confident of being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or back at the launch site and refly the rocket with no required refurbishment."


text: By late 2014, SpaceX suspended or abandoned the plan to recover and reuse the Falcon 9 second stage; the additional mass of the required heat shield, landing gear, and low-powered landing engines would incur too great a performance penalty. While the idea was mentioned again later it was ultimately abandoned as Starship development made progress.


text: In December 2015, following the recovery of the first stage from December 22 launch, SpaceX projected that the first reflight of a recovered booster would likely occur in 2016, but that their plan was to not refly the December 22 recovered stage for that purpose.


text: In September 2016, SpaceX announced that development was underway to extend the reusable flight hardware to second stages, a more challenging engineering problem because the vehicle is travelling at orbital velocity. The reusable technology was to have been extended to the 2016 designs of both the tanker and crewed spaceship upper stage variants as well as the first stage of the Interplanetary Transport System,


text: and is considered paramount to the plans Elon Musk is championing to enable the settlement of Mars. In 2016, initial test flights of an Interplanetary Transport System vehicle were expected no earlier than 2020.


text: In 2017 SpaceX was making test flight progress in incrementally and iteratively developing a fairing recovery system.


text: In July 2017, Musk said "we are quite close to being able to recover the fairing. ... We've got a decent shot of recovering a fairing by the end of the year, and reflight by late this year or early next."


text: The cost savings to SpaceX of recovering the fairing is expected to be on the order of . Together, the booster stage and the fairing make up approximately 80 percent of the cost of a launch. The fairings are equipped with a steerable parachute and fall towards a ship equipped with a big net. Intact fairings could be recovered from the ocean starting in 2017, with landings in the net from 2019 on.


text: Several new technologies needed to be developed and tested to facilitate successful launch and recovery of the first stages of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, and both stages of Starship. Since 2017, recovery and reuse of Falcon rocket boosters has become routine.


text: In order to make the Falcon 9 reusable and return to the launch site, extra propellant and landing gear must be carried on the first stage, requiring around a 30 percent reduction of the maximum payload to orbit in comparison with the expendable Falcon 9. Reflight of a previously used stage on a subsequent flight is dependent on the condition of the landed stage, and is a technique that has seen little use outside of the Space Shuttle's reusable solid rocket boosters.


text: Musk projected in 2015 that the reflight step of the program would be "straightforward," because of the multiple full duration firings of the engines that had been done on the ground, and the multiple engine restarts that had been demonstrated by that time, with no significant degradation seen.


text: In 2015, industry analysts continued to forecast problems that could prevent economic reuse because costs to refurbish and relaunch the stage were not yet demonstrated, and the economic case for reuse would necessarily be highly dependent on launching frequently.


text: SpaceX is expected to significantly reduce the cost of access to space, and change the increasingly competitive market in space launch services. Michael Belfiore wrote in "Foreign Policy" in 2013 that, at a published cost of per launch to low Earth orbit, "Falcon 9 rockets are already the cheapest in the industry. Reusable Falcon 9s could drop the price by an order of magnitude, sparking more space-based enterprise, which in turn would drop the cost of access to space still further through economies of scale." Even for military launches, which have a number of contractual requirements for additional launch services to be provided, SpaceX's price is under .


text: Space industry analyst Ajay Kothari has noted that SpaceX reusable technology could do for space transport "what jet engines did for air transportation sixty years ago when people never imagined that more than 500 million passengers would travel by airplanes every year and that the cost could be reduced to the level it is—all because of passenger volume and reliable reusability."


text: SpaceX said in January 2014 that if they are successful in developing the reusable technology, launch prices of around for a reusable Falcon 9 were possible,


text: and following the successful first stage recovery in December 2015, Musk said that "the potential cost reduction over the long term is probably in excess of a factor of 100."


text: In 2014 the Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket was designed with about 30 percent more capacity than its official payload specifications; the additional performance was reserved for SpaceX to perform first-stage re-entry and landing tests towards reusability while still achieving the specified orbital payload delivery for customers.


text: In order to achieve the full economic benefit of the reusable technology, it is necessary that the reuse be both rapid and complete—without the long and costly refurbishment period or partially reusable design that plagued earlier attempts at reusable launch vehicles. SpaceX has been explicit that the "huge potential to open up space flight" is dependent on achieving both complete and rapid reusability.


text: CEO Musk stated in 2014 that success with the technology development effort could reduce "the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100" because the cost of the propellant/oxidizer on the Falcon 9 is only 0.3 percent of the total cost of the vehicle.


text: Separate from the market competition brought about by SpaceX lower launch prices and the potential future of even more radically lower launch prices if the technology can be completed successfully, "Aviation Week" said in 2014 that "SpaceX reusable launch work is an R&D model"—"The audacity of the concept and speed of the program’s progress make it an exemplar. ... [the] breakneck pace of development has been almost Apollo-like in its execution... [even while] success is far from guaranteed."


text: On March 9, 2016, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell gave a more realistic appraisal of the potential savings of a reused launch now that attempts to reuse the second stage had been abandoned due to cost and weight issues. She said at cost of refueling and cost of refurbishing a used first stage could potentially allow a launch to be priced as low as , a 30% saving. SpaceX's biggest customer SES said it wants to be the first to ride a reused vehicle, though it wants a launch price of or a 50% saving to offset the risk of pioneering the process.


text: According to Elon Musk, almost every piece of the Falcon should be reused over 100 times. Heat shields and a few other items should be reused over 10 times before replacement. In March 2017, SpaceX announced progress in their experiments to recover, and eventually reuse, the 6-million dollar payload fairing. On the SES-10 mission, one of the fairing halves performed a controlled atmospheric reentry and splashdown using thrusters and a steerable parachute; fairings are eventually slated to land on a floating "bouncy castle" structure.


text: SpaceX began re-flight of previously launched booster stages in 2017. The first re-flight was accomplished in March 2017, nearly a year after the booster's maiden flight; the second was in June 2017, only five months after its maiden flight. Both were successful, and both insurers and launch service customers are readily supporting the newly emerging market in launch services provided by multiple-use boosters.


text: In August 2020, Elon Musk tweeted that refurbishment and reuse of a booster is done for less than 10% the price of a new booster while the payload reduction is below 40%. According to his tweet, SpaceX breaks even with a second flight per booster and saves money from the third flight on. At that time, Falcon 9 Block 5 had made 35 flights with 11 boosters.


text: Prior to the reusability program's success in December 2015, the return of an orbital launch system booster rocket had never been accomplished, and many questioned both technical and economic feasibility. And even after this success, the "rapid" reuse of a rocket has not been attempted. Developing a reusable rocket is extremely challenging due to the small percentage of a rocket's mass that can make it to orbit. Typically, a rocket's payload is only about 3% of the mass of the rocket which is also roughly the amount of mass in fuel that is required for the vehicle's re-entry.


text: Elon Musk said at the beginning of the program that he believed the return, vertical landing and recovery was possible because the SpaceX manufacturing methodologies result in a rocket efficiency exceeding the typical 3% margin. A SpaceX rocket operating in the reusable configuration has approximately 30% less payload lift capacity than the same rocket in an expendable configuration.


text: Although the reusable launch system technology was developed and initially used for the first stages of the Falcon family of rockets it is particularly well suited to the Falcon Heavy where the two outer cores separate from the rocket earlier in the flight, and are therefore moving more slowly at stage separation. For example, on Falcon 9 flight 20, the speed at separation was close to 6000 km/h and this allowed a return to near the launch site. On flight 22, going to a more-energetic GTO orbit, the higher velocity at separation was between 8000 and 9000 km/h. At these faster speeds it is not possible to return the booster to near the launch site for a landing; if a landing is attempted it needs to be hundreds of kilometers downrange on an autonomous droneship.


text: Reuse also has an impact on risk estimates. While early customers of reused rockets asked for a lower price, a booster that has flown already has been demonstrated to work under realistic flight conditions. Some customers now prefer reused boosters over new boosters.


text: In 2013 SpaceX was testing reusable technologies both for its first-stage booster launch vehicle designs (with three test vehicles : Grasshopper, F9R Dev1, and F9R Dev2) — and for its new reusable SpaceX Dragon 2 space capsule (with a low-altitude test vehicle called DragonFly).


text: SpaceX has publicly disclosed a multi-element, incremental test program for booster stages that includes four aspects:


text: The first booster return controlled-descent test from high-altitude was made in September 2013, with a second test in April,


text: and a fourth test in September 2014. All four test flights to date were intended to be over-water, simulated landings.


text: Five low-altitude booster flight tests of F9R Dev1 were flown during April–August 2014, before the vehicle self-destructed for safety reasons on the fifth flight.


text: SpaceX used a set of experimental technology-demonstrator, suborbital reusable launch vehicles (RLV) to begin flight testing their reusable booster technologies in 2012. Two versions of the prototype reusable test rockets were built—the tall "Grasshopper" (formerly designated as "Grasshopper v1.0") and the tall "Falcon 9 Reusable Development Vehicle", or "F9R Dev1"—formerly known as "Grasshopper v1.1"—as well as a capsule prototype for testing propulsive landings of the Dragon crew and cargo capsule for the Falcon 9—"DragonFly".


text: Grasshopper was built in 2011–2012 for low-altitude, low-velocity hover testing that began in September 2012 and concluded in October 2013 after eight test flights.


text: The second prototype vehicle design, F9R Dev1, was built on the much larger Falcon 9 v1.1 booster stage was used to further extend the low-altitude flight testing envelope on a vehicle that better matched the actual flight hardware, and made five test flights in 2014. The low-altitude, low-speed flights of the test vehicle rockets and capsule were conducted at the SpaceX Rocket Test Facility in McGregor, Texas


text: SpaceX indicated in November 2018 that they considered testing a heavily modified Falcon 9 second stage that would look like a "mini-BFR Ship" and be used for atmospheric reentry testing of a number of technologies needed for the full-scale spaceship, including an ultra-light heat shield and high-Mach control surfaces, but two weeks later, Musk dismissed the approach in favor of using a full-diameter BFR instead.


text: Grasshopper, the company's first VTVL test vehicle, consisted of a Falcon 9 v1.0 first-stage tank, a single Merlin-1D engine, and four permanently attached steel landing legs. It stood tall. SpaceX built a concrete launch facility at its Rocket Development and Test Facility in McGregor, Texas to support the Grasshopper flight test program.


text: Grasshopper was also known as Grasshopper version 1.0, or Grasshopper v1.0, prior to 2014 during the time the followon Grasshopper-class test vehicles were being built.


text: In addition to three test flights in 2012, five additional tests were successfully flown by the end of October 2013including the fourth test overall in March 2013in which Grasshopper doubled its highest leap to rise to with a 34-second flight. In the seventh test, in August 2013, the vehicle flew to during a 60-second flight and executed a lateral maneuver before returning to the pad. Grasshopper made its eighth and final test flight on October 7, 2013, flying to before making its eighth successful landing. The Grasshopper test vehicle is now retired.


text: As early as October 2012, SpaceX discussed development of a second-generation Grasshopper test vehicle, which was to have lighter landing legs that fold up on the side of the rocket, a different engine bay, and would be nearly 50% longer than the first Grasshopper vehicle. In March 2013, SpaceX announced that the larger Grasshopper-class suborbital flight vehicle would be constructed out of the first-stage tank that was used for qualification testing at the SpaceX Rocket Development and Test Facility in early 2013. It was rebuilt as the with extensible landing legs. Five test flights occurred in 2014.


text: The second VTVL flight test vehicle—F9R Dev1, built on the much longer Falcon 9 v1.1 first-stage tank, with retractable landing legs—made its first test flight on April 17, 2014. F9R Dev1 was used for low-altitude test flights in the McGregor, Texas area—projected maximum altitude below —with a total of five test flights, all made during 2014.


text: By April 2014, a third flight test vehicle—F9R Dev2—was being built and was planned to be flown at the high-altitude test range available at Spaceport America in New Mexico where it was expected to be flown at altitudes up to -plus. It was never flown as SpaceX moved the high-altitude testing program to its controlled-descent testing of used boosters following their use on a paid orbital launch and ascent.


text: DragonFly was a prototype test article for a propulsively landed version of the SpaceX Dragon capsule, a suborbital reusable launch vehicle (RLV), intended for low-altitude flight testing. it was planned to undergo a test program in Texas at the McGregor Rocket Test Facility, during 2014–2015.


text: The DragonFly test vehicle is powered by eight SuperDraco engines, arranged in a redundant pattern to support fault-tolerance in the propulsion system design. SuperDracos utilize a storable propellant mixture of monomethyl hydrazine (MMH) fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer (NTO), the same propellants used in the much smaller Draco thrusters used for attitude control and maneuvering on the first-generation Dragon spacecraft.


text: While SuperDraco engines are capable of of thrust, during use on DragonFly flight test vehicle each will be throttled to less than to maintain vehicle stability.


text: A test flight program of thirty flights was proposed in 2013–2014, including two "propulsive assist" (parachutes plus thrusters) and two "propulsive landing" (no parachutes) on flights dropped from a helicopter at an altitude of approximately . The other 26 test flights were projected to take off from a pad: eight to be "propulsive assist hops" (landing with parachutes plus thrusters) and 18 to be "full propulsive hops", similar to the Grasshopper and F9R Dev booster stage test flights.


text: , the DragonFly test program was not expected to start until after the completion of the F9R Dev1 booster testing at the McGregor facility.


text: In an arrangement highly unusual for launch vehicles, SpaceX began in 2013 using some first stages of the Falcon 9 v1.1 rockets for propulsive-return controlled-descent flight tests after they completed the boost phase of an orbital flight. Since the advent of spaceflight in 1957, launch vehicle boosters would ordinarily just be discarded after setting their payloads on their way. The over-water tests started by SpaceX took place in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans south of Vandenberg Air Force Base and east of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The first flight test occurred on September 29, 2013, after the second stage with the CASSIOPE and nanosat payloads separated from the booster. These descent and simulated landing tests continued over the next two years, with the second flight test taking place on April 18, 2014, two more test in 2014, and four subsequent tests conducted in 2015. SpaceX continued to make iterative and incremental changes to the booster design, as well as the specific reusable technologies, descent profile and propellant margins, on some 2016-2018 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy flights to tweak the design and operational parameters. Many of these descent and landing tests were tested on active orbital spaceflight missions for SpaceX customers as the booster reentered the atmosphere and attempted recoverable landings.


text: Following analysis of the flight test data from the first booster-controlled descent in September 2013, SpaceX announced it had successfully tested a large amount of new technology on the flight, and that coupled with the technology advancements made on the Grasshopper low-altitude landing demonstrator, they were ready to test a full recovery of the booster stage. The first flight test was successful; SpaceX said it was "able to successfully transition from vacuum through hypersonic, through supersonic, through transonic, and light the engines all the way and control the stage all the way through [the atmosphere]". Musk said, "the next attempt to recovery [sic] the Falcon 9 first stage will be on the fourth flight of the upgraded rocket. This would be [the] third commercial Dragon cargo flight to ISS."


text: This second flight test took place during the April 2014 Dragon flight to the ISS. SpaceX attached landing legs to the first stage, decelerated it over the ocean and attempted a simulated landing over the water, following the ignition of the second stage on the third cargo resupply mission contracted to NASA. The first stage was successfully slowed down enough for a soft landing over the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX announced in February 2014 the intent to continue the tests to land the first-stage booster in the ocean until precision control from hypersonic all the way through subsonic regimes has been proven.


text: Five additional controlled-descent tests were conducted in the remainder of 2014 through April 2015, including two attempts to land on a floating landing platform—a SpaceX-built Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship—on the Atlantic Ocean east of the launch site, both of which brought the vehicle to the landing platform, but neither of which resulted in a successful landing.


text: During the 2015 launch hiatus, SpaceX requested regulatory approval from the FAA to attempt returning their next flight to Cape Canaveral instead of targeting a floating platform in the ocean. The goal was to land the booster vertically at the leased "Landing Zone 1" facility—the former Launch Complex 13 where SpaceX had recently built a large rocket landing pad.


text: The FAA approved the safety plan for the ground landing on December 18, 2015. The first stage landed successfully on target at 20:38 local time on December 21 (01:38 UTC on December 22).


text: First stage booster "B1019" never flew again after the flight. Rather, the rocket was moved a few miles north to the SpaceX hangar facilities at Launch pad 39A, recently refurbished by SpaceX at the adjacent Kennedy Space Center, where it was inspected before being used on January 15, 2016, to conduct a static fire test on its original launchpad, Launch Complex 40. This test aimed to assess the health of the recovered booster and the capability of this rocket design to fly repeatedly in the future. The tests delivered good overall results except for one of the outer engines experiencing thrust fluctuations. Elon Musk reported that this may have been due to debris ingestion.


text: Falcon 9 Flight 21 launched the Jason-3 satellite on January 17, 2016, and attempted to land on the floating platform "Just Read the Instructions", located for the first time about out in the Pacific Ocean.


text: Approximately 9 minutes into the flight, the live video feed from the drone ship went down due to the losing its lock on the uplink satellite.


text: The vehicle landed smoothly onto the vessel but one of the four landing legs failed to lock properly, reportedly due to ice from the heavy pre-launch fog preventing a lockout collet from latching.


text: Consequently the booster fell over shortly after touchdown and was destroyed in a deflagration upon impact with the pad.


text: Flight 22 was carrying a heavy payload of to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). This was heavier than previously advertised maximum lift capacity to GTO being made possible by going slightly subsynchronous. Following delays caused by failure of Flight 19, SpaceX agreed to provide extra thrust to the SES-9 satellite to take it supersynchronous.


text: As a result of these factors, there was little propellant left to execute a full reentry and landing test with normal margins. Consequently the Falcon 9 first stage followed a ballistic trajectory after separation and re-entered the atmosphere at high velocity, making it less likely to land successfully. The atmospheric re-entry and controlled descent were successful despite the higher aerodynamical constraints on the first stage due to extra speed. However the rocket was moving too fast and was destroyed when it collided with the drone ship. SpaceX collected valuable data on the extended flight envelope required to recover boosters from GTO missions.


text: Starting in January 2015, SpaceX positioned stable floating platforms a few hundred miles off the coast along the rocket trajectory; those transformed barges were called autonomous spaceport drone ships. On April 8, 2016, Falcon 9 Flight 23, the third flight of the full-thrust version, delivered the SpaceX CRS-8 cargo on its way to the International Space Station while the first stage conducted a boostback and re-entry maneuver over the Atlantic ocean. Nine minutes after liftoff, the booster landed vertically on the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You", 300 km from the Florida coastline, achieving a long-sought-after milestone for the SpaceX reusability development program.


text: A second successful drone ship landing occurred on May 6, 2016, with the next flight which launched JCSAT-14 to GTO. This second landing at sea was more difficult than the previous one because the booster at separation was traveling about compared to on the CRS-8 launch to low Earth orbit. Pursuing their experiments to test the limits of the flight envelope, SpaceX opted for a shorter landing burn with three engines instead of the single-engine burns seen in earlier attempts; this approach consumes less fuel by leaving the stage in free fall as long as possible and decelerating more sharply, thereby minimizing the amount of energy expended to counter gravity. Elon Musk indicated this first stage may not be flown again instead being used as a life leader for ground tests to confirm others are good.


text: A third successful landing followed on 27 May, again following deceleration from the high speed required for a GTO launch. The landing crushed a "crush core" in one leg, leading to a notable tilt to the stage as it stood on the drone ship.


text: Over the subsequent missions, landing of the first stage gradually became a routine procedure, and since January 2017 SpaceX ceased to refer to their landing attempts as "experimental". Low-energy missions to the ISS fly back to the launch site and land at LZ-1, whereas more demanding satellite missions land on drone ships a few hundred miles downrange. Occasional missions with heavy payloads, such as EchoStar 23, do not attempt to land, flying in expendable configuration without fins and legs.


text: During 2016 and 2017, SpaceX has recovered a number of first stages to both land and drone ships, helping them optimize the procedures needed to re-use the boosters rapidly. In January 2016 Elon Musk estimated the likelihood of success at 70 percent for all landing attempts in 2016, hopefully rising to 90 percent in 2017; he also cautioned that we should expect "a few more RUDs" ("Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly", Musk's acronym to denote destruction of the vehicle on impact). Musk's prediction was vindicated, as 5 out of 8 flown boosters () were recovered in 2016, and 14 out of 14 () in 2017. Three GTO missions for heavy payloads (EchoStar 23 in March 2017, Inmarsat-5 F4 in May 2017 and Intelsat 35e in July 2017) were flown in an expendable configuration, not equipped for landing. One booster which could have been recovered was intentionally flown without legs and left to sink after a soft touchdown in the ocean (booster B1036 for the Iridium NEXT 31–40 mission in December 2017).


text: , SpaceX had recovered 21 first-stage boosters from previous missions, of which six were recovered twice, yielding a total 27 landings. In 2017, SpaceX flew a total of 5 missions out of 20 with re-used boosters (). In total, 14 boosters have been re-flown .


text: On July 28, 2016, the first stage from the JCSAT-2B mission was successfully test-fired for a full duration at the SpaceX McGregor facility. The first reuse attempt occurred on 30 March 2017 with the launch of SES-10, resulting in a successful flight and second landing of the B1021 first stage recovered from the CRS-8 mission of April 2016. Another reflight succeeded in June 2017 with BulgariaSat-1 riding the B1029 booster from the January 2017 Iridium NEXT mission. Booster B1031 flew the CRS-10 mission to the ISS in February 2017 and helped loft communications satellite SES-11 to geostationary orbit in October 2017. Boosters B1035 and B1036 were flown twice each for the same customer, B1035 for NASA missions CRS-11 and CRS-13 in June and December 2017, and B1036 for two batches of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites, also in June and December 2017. B1032 was re-used for GovSat-1 in January 2018 after NROL-76 in May 2017.


text: SpaceX spent four months refurbishing the first booster to be re-used, B1021, and launched it again after approximately one year. The second booster to be flown again, B1029, was refurbished in "only a couple of months" and re-launched after five months. Elon Musk has stated a goal to turn around a first stage within 24 hours. Musk remains convinced that this long-term goal can be met by SpaceX rocket technology, but has not stated that the goal would be achieved with the Falcon 9 design.


text: Boosters B1019 and B1021 were retired and put on display. B1029 was also retired after the BulgariaSat-1 mission. B1023, B1025, B1031 and B1035 were recovered a second time, while B1032 and B1036 were deliberately sunk at sea after a soft ocean touchdown.


text: By mid-2019, having reflown any single booster only three times to date, SpaceX indicated that they plan to use a single booster at least five times by the end of 2019. No booster achieved this timeline, but B1048 flew four times and two more (B1046 and B1049) made a fourth flight in January 2020. In March 2020, SpaceX first flew a booster (B1048) for the fifth time.


text: Falcon Heavy test flight had no contracted customer, and in order to limit the cost on such a test flight, SpaceX targeted to have reused side-boosters. Boosters B1023 and B1025 that had been flown as a Falcon 9 configuration, were reconfigured and used as side boosters on the first flight of Falcon Heavy in February 2018, and then both landed side-by-side at almost the same time on the ground pads. Later Falcon Heavy flights used either new boosters, or side-boosters previously flown on a Falcon Heavy. SpaceX has been unable to recover the central core in any of the three Falcon Heavy, but managed to recover all the six-side boosters.


text: With a streak of 19 successful recovery attempts of the first stage from 2016 through to early 2018, SpaceX has focused on rapid reusability of first stage boosters. Block 3 and Block 4 proved economically feasible to be flown twice, as 11 such boosters have been reflown in 2017 and 2018. Block 5 has been designed with multiple reuses in mind, up to 10 reuses with minimal inspection and up to 100 uses with refurbishment. New aggressive reentry profiles were experimented with expendable Block 3 and Block 4 boosters in early 2018, to test out the limitations on the range of recoverable launch margins that are potential for future Block 5. On 9 May 2021, B1051 became the first booster to be launched and landed for the tenth time, achieving one of SpaceX's milestone goals for reuse.


text: Payload fairings have traditionally been expendable, where they have either burned up in the atmosphere or were destroyed upon impacting the ocean. As early as mid-2015, Musk hinted that SpaceX might be working on fairing reusability, following the discovery of wreckage of an unidentified Falcon 9 launch vehicle section off the coast of The Bahamas, and was subsequently confirmed by SpaceX to be a component of a payload fairing that had washed ashore.


text: By April 2016, SpaceX had publicly announced Falcon 9 fairing recovery as an objective. The cost of the fairing is about $6 million per launch, which accounts for approximately ten percent of the overall launch costs. Musk said in 2017: "Imagine if you had $6 million in cash in a pallet flying through the air, and it was going to smash into the ocean. Would you try to recover that? Yes, yes you would."


text: In March 2017, as part of the SES-10 mission, SpaceX for the first time performed a controlled landing of the payload fairing and successfully recovered a fairing half, aided by attitude-control thrusters and a steerable parachute, helping it glide towards a gentle touchdown on water.


text: The company announced intent to land the fairings eventually on a dry flexible structure, jokingly described by Musk as a "floating bouncy-castle", with the aim of full fairing reuse.


text: With successive tests and refinements on several flights, intact fairing recovery was stated as an objective for 2017, with reflight of a recovered fairing planned in 2018.


text: The "bouncy castle" meme was in fact a net strung between large arms of a fast platform supply vessel named "Mr. Steven (now GO Ms. Tree)". The recovery vessel is equipped with dynamic positioning systems, and was tested after the launch of the Paz satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 2017. This mission was also the first to use a version 2 fairing, explicitly designed to "improve survivability for post-launch recovery attempts, and to be reusable on future missions". This recovery attempt was not fully successful; the fairing missed the boat by a few hundred meters but landed intact in the water before being recovered and taken back to port. , all four attempts by SpaceX to land a fairing on a recovery ship had failed, despite fitting "Mr. Steven" with larger nets before the July 2018 attempt.


text: In October 2018, at least two fairing recovery tests were performed, involving "Mr. Steven" and a helicopter, which would drop a fairing half from the height of about 3300 meters. The outcome of the tests was unclear.


text: In April 2019, during the second Falcon Heavy mission, recovery boat "Go Searcher" fished the fairing halves out of the sea and it was announced the fairings would be used on a Starlink mission. These fairings were reused in a Starlink mission on 11 November 2019.


text: In June 2019, following the third Falcon Heavy launch, the first successful fairing catch was made. Images posted to Twitter hours after launch showed one half of the fairing nestled in the net of the recovery vessel "GO Ms. Tree".


text: By late 2020, payload fairings were being regularly recovered by SpaceX, with SpaceX dispatching two custom-modified recovery ships—"Ms. Tree" and "Ms. Chief"—to collect the fairings on most launches from their Florida launch site. By this time, SpaceX was also regularly reflying recovered fairings on launches, usually on their own flights where Starlink satellites are the primary or only payload. however, successful net landings were not yet routine, with less than half of the fairings of the previous three months being caught in the nets, but most still recovered anyway after a soft landing in the ocean.


text: By April 2021, SpaceX had abandoned the experimental program to attempt recovery of dry payload fairings under parachute descent in a net on a fast ship. SpaceX decided to operationalize "wet recovery" of fairings on future Falcon 9 flights, having found that they can clean, refurbish, and reuse such fairings more economically. SpaceX released "Miss Tree" and "Miss Chief" from their contracts and purchased two ships for fairing recovery operations as well as for towing and supporting droneships on the east coast. These two ships were named in honour of Demo-2 astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken as "Doug" and "Bob". The earlier names of the ships Bob and Doug were Ella G and Ingrid respectively. Currently, Doug is operating at Port Canaveral while Bob is at Tampa undergoing construction.


text: By 26 May 2021, SpaceX had launched 40 flights that reflew at least one previously-flown fairing half, and one fairing had flown on five different flights, having been recovered and cleaned four previous times.


text: Despite early public statements that SpaceX would endeavor to make the Falcon 9 second-stage reusable as well, by late 2014, they determined that the mass needed for a re-entry heat shield, landing engines, and other equipment to support recovery of the second stage as well as the diversion of development resources from other company objectives was at that time prohibitive, and indefinitely suspended their second-stage reusability plans for the Falcon rockets.


text: However, in July 2017 they indicated that they might do experimental tests on recovering one or more second-stages in order to learn more about reusability to inform their Starship development process,


text: The Starship is planned to replace all existing SpaceX launch and space vehicles after the mid-2020s: Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and the Dragon spacecraft, aimed initially at the Earth-orbit launch market but with capability to support long-duration spaceflight in the cislunar and Mars mission environments. Both stages will be fully reusable. The integrated second-stage-with-spaceship design has not been used in previous launch vehicles.


text: SpaceX's Dragon capsules have been gradually improved for reuse. Structural elements and internal components are being refurbished between flights, while the heat shield is replaced for each new mission. The last newly built Dragon cargo capsule first flew in July 2017; all subsequent ISS resupply missions were conducted with refurbished capsules, some capsules made a third flight. Dragon's trunk section cannot be reused, as it is designed to burn up in the atmosphere after completing its mission.


text: SpaceX Dragon 2 is planned to be reused as well. Initially it was planned to use new capsules for all crewed NASA missions but experience with the demonstration missions lead to NASA and SpaceX agreeing on reuse starting from Crew-2.


text: In the first year of successful stage return from the experimental test flights, SpaceX performed "ad hoc" and flight-specific evaluation and component testing on each successfully landed stage. Stages were processed and initially evaluated in either launch hangars, or for Cape Canaveral landings, in the new hangar SpaceX recently completed at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39. Returned rocket parts have also been transported to SpaceX Hawthorne and SpaceX McGregor for engineering evaluation and testing.


text: In February 2017, after eight rocket cores had successfully landed — seven of them having launched from Cape Canaveral — SpaceX announced plans to expand their physical facilities to process and refurbish rockets. They will do so in both leased space and in a new building to be built in Port Canaveral, Florida, near the location where the Atlantic Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship is berthed, and where stages that land on the east-coast droneship are now removed from the ship.


text: The goal of Starship launch system is to be a fully reusable orbital launch and reentry vehicle. The Starship launch system consists of two stages: a Super Heavy booster and a Starship spacecraft; both have a body made from SAE 304L stainless steel and are designed to hold liquid oxygen and liquid methane. Super Heavy and then Starship will boost the rocket up to orbital speed, after which both of them will land and can be used again. Starship can send more than to low Earth orbit; higher Earth and other orbits are accessible after being refueled by tanker Starships. Future planned Starship variants will be able to land on the Moon and Mars. Starship's design has influenced other launch vehicles, such as the Terran R's full reusability capability.


text: The first reference by SpaceX of a rocket concept with Starship lifting capabilities was in 2005. In a student conference, Musk briefly mentioned a theoretical heavy‑lift launch vehicle code-named BFR, later known as the Falcon XX. It would be powered by a larger version of the Merlin engine, called Merlin 2, and feature a lifting capability of to low Earth orbit. In 2012, in a public discussion about a conceptual Mars colonization program, Musk described the Mars Colonial Transporter. He envisioned it as a reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle that could deliver approximately to low Earth orbit. The Mars Colonial Transporter might be powered by Raptors, consuming liquid methane and liquid oxygen.


text: In September 2016, at the 67th International Astronautical Congress, Musk announced the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), a conceptual reusable rocket conceived to launch humans to Mars and other destinations in the Solar System. The ITS was to be tall, wide, and capable of lifting to low Earth orbit. Both stages were to be made from carbon composites. The first stage or booster was to be powered by 42 Raptors, and the second stage by nine Raptors. Once refueled while in Earth orbit, the spacecraft could accelerate to Mars. When an Interplanetary Spaceship enters the atmosphere, it cools itself via transpiration and controls the spacecraft's descent by moving its delta wings and split flaps. At the following Congress, Musk announced a replacement rocket called the Big Falcon Rocket or informally Big Fucking Rocket. The Big Falcon Rocket is tall and wide. In that conference, he talked about a possible suborbital transportation feature and termed it Earth to Earth.


text: In November 2018, the present names were first used: Super Heavy for the booster, Starship for the spacecraft, and Starship system or just Starship for the whole vehicle. Around that time, Musk announced a redesigned spacecraft concept with three aft flaps and two forward flaps. In January 2019, Musk announced that Starship would be made from stainless steel and stated that this might be stronger than an equivalent carbon composite in a wide range of temperatures. In March, Musk tweeted that SpaceX opted for a heat shield composed of hexagonal ceramic tiles instead of transpiration. In October, the Starship spacecraft's engine configuration was changed to three Raptors optimized for atmospheric pressure and three optimized for space. The number of rear fins was reduced from three to two and placed at the heat shield's edges.


text: On 27 August 2019, a simplified test article named "Starhopper" hopped high. Unveiled in a SpaceX event in September 2019, Starship Mk1 (Mark 1) was the first full‑scale Starship test article to be built. The Mk2 in Florida was constructed five months later. Neither flew: Mk1 was destroyed during a cryogenic proof test and Mk2 was scrapped. In early 2020, SpaceX changed Mk3's name to SN1 (serial number 1). During a cryogenic proof test on 28 February 2021, a fault in SN1's bottom tank caused it to crumble. On 8 March 2020, SN2 stripped-down test tank completed its only cryogenic proof test. On 3 April 2020, during SN3's cryogenic proof test, a valve leaked the liquid nitrogen inside its lower tank, causing the vessel to depressurize and collapse. After SN4's fifth successful static fire test on 29 May 2020, the quick disconnect fuel line caused it to explode. On 15 June 2020, Musk tweeted that new prototypes would be made from SAE 304L instead of 301 stainless steel. On 4 August 2020, SN5 completed a hop using a single Raptor, the first full-scale test article to complete a flight test intact. On 24 August 2020, SN6 replicated SN5's flight path successfully. SN7 was not completed, but as of October 2021, its tanks were salvaged for various experiments.


text: SN8 was the first complete test article. In October and November 2020, SN8 underwent four static fire tests; the first, second, and fourth were successful, but the third caused an engine shutdown. According to Musk, the force from the engine destroyed parts of the launch pad sending some pieces of it into the engine. On 9 December 2020, SN8 performed the first flight by a Starship, reaching an altitude of . During landing, its methane header tank did not provide sufficient fuel to the Raptors, reducing thrust from one engine. The test article exploded on impact. On 2 February 2021, SN9 flew high. While descending, one of its engines did not function and burst on landing at an angle. On 3 March 2021, SN10 repeated SN9's flight path, then hard landed and destroyed itself in an explosion 8 minutes later.


text: The first Super Heavy booster named BN1 (booster number 1) finished construction on 8 March 2021, but it had not received engines. On 30 March 2021, SN11 exploded in midair without a confirmed explanation because of the dense fog at the launch site. A possible explanation is that an engine might have burned the test article's avionics and could have caused a hard start on the engine's turbopump. After the launch, SpaceX skipped SN12, SN13, SN14, and BN2, and incorporated obsolete test articles' improvements to SN15 instead. On 5 May 2021, the test article flew the same flight path as previous test articles and soft landed successfully. On 20 July 2021, BN3 fired its engines for the only time. As of October 2021, SN15, SN16, and BN3 had been retired and displayed.


text: As of October 2021, skipping over SN16, SN17, SN18, and SN19, SN20 along with BN4 are targeted to an orbital flight scheduled for late 2021. However, a NASA public document that outlines NASA's plan to observe Starship's reentry inferred that the launch might happen near March 2022. However, the article did not specify that the observed flight would be the first test flight of the Starship, so an approximate launch date is still unknown. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not approved the environmental impact statement draft released on 19 September 2021. BN4 is expected to separate about three minutes into the orbital flight and splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately from the shoreline. The rocket's SN20 second stage ground track will then traverse the middle of the Straits of Florida between Key West and Cuba, a range safety consideration to assure any debris from a malfunction falls away from populated areas. Once over the Atlantic Ocean, SN20 is then expected to accelerate close to orbital speed and splashdown around ninety minutes later northwest of Kauai, Hawaii.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rosas (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877), nicknamed "Restorer of the Laws", was an Argentine politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confederation. Although born into a wealthy family, Rosas independently amassed a personal fortune, acquiring large tracts of land in the process. Rosas enlisted his workers in a private militia, as was common for rural proprietors, and took part in the disputes that led to numerous civil wars in his country. Victorious in warfare, personally influential, and with vast landholdings and a loyal private army, Rosas became a caudillo, as provincial warlords in the region were known. He eventually reached the rank of brigadier general, the highest in the Argentine Army, and became the undisputed leader of the Federalist Party.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: In December 1829, Rosas became governor of the province of Buenos Aires and established a dictatorship backed by state terrorism. In 1831, he signed the Federal Pact, recognising provincial autonomy and creating the Argentine Confederation. When his term of office ended in 1832, Rosas departed to the frontier to wage war on the indigenous peoples. After his supporters launched a "coup" in Buenos Aires, Rosas was asked to return and once again took office as governor. Rosas reestablished his dictatorship and formed the repressive "Mazorca", an armed parapolice that killed thousands of citizens. Elections became a farce, and the legislature and judiciary became docile instruments of his will. Rosas created a cult of personality and his regime became totalitarian in nature, with all aspects of society rigidly controlled.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Rosas faced many threats to his power during the late 1830s and early 1840s. He fought a war against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation, endured a blockade by France, faced a revolt in his own province and battled a major rebellion that lasted for years and spread to five northern Argentine provinces. Rosas persevered and extended his influence in the provinces, exercising effective control over them through direct and indirect means. By 1848, he had extended his power beyond the borders of Buenos Aires and was ruler of all of Argentina. Rosas also attempted to annex the neighbouring nations of Uruguay and Paraguay. France and Great Britain jointly retaliated against Argentine expansionism, blockading Buenos Aires for most of the late 1840s, but were unable to halt Rosas, whose prestige was greatly enhanced by his string of successes.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: When the Empire of Brazil began aiding Uruguay in its struggle against Argentina, Rosas declared war in August 1851, starting the Platine War. This short conflict ended with Rosas being defeated and absconding to Britain. His last years were spent in exile living as a tenant farmer until his death in 1877. Rosas garnered an enduring public perception among Argentines as a brutal tyrant. Since the 1930s, an authoritarian, anti-Semitic, and racist political movement in Argentina called Revisionism has tried to improve Rosas's reputation and establish a new dictatorship in the model of his regime In 1989, his remains were repatriated by the government in an attempt to promote national unity, seeking to rehabilitate Rosas and the 1970s military dictatorship. Rosas remains a controversial figure in Argentina in the 21st century.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rosas was born on 30 March 1793 at his family's town house in Buenos Aires, the capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. He was the first child of León Ortiz de Rosas and Agustina López de Osornio. León Ortiz was the son of an immigrant from the Spanish Province of Burgos. A military officer with an undistinguished career, León Ortiz had married into a wealthy "Criollo" family. The young Juan Manuel de Rosas's character was heavily influenced by his mother Agustina, a strong-willed and domineering woman who derived these character traits from her father Clemente López de Osornio, a landowner who died defending his estate from an Indian attack in 1783.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: As was common practice at the time, Rosas was schooled at home until the age of 8, and then enrolled in what was regarded the best private school in Buenos Aires. Though befitting the son of a wealthy landowner, his education was unremarkable. According to historian John Lynch, Rosas' education "was supplemented by his own efforts in the years that followed. Rosas was not entirely unread, though the time, the place, and his own bias limited the choice of authors. He appears to have had a sympathetic, if superficial, acquaintance with minor political thinkers of French absolutism."


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: In 1806, a British expeditionary force invaded Buenos Aires. A 13-year-old Rosas served distributing ammunition to troops in a force organised by Viceroy Santiago Liniers to counter the invasion. The British were defeated in August 1806, but returned a year later. Rosas was then assigned to the "Caballería de los Migueletes" (a militia cavalry), although he was probably barred from active duty during this time due to illness.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: After the British invasions had been repelled, Rosas and his family moved from Buenos Aires to their "estancia" (ranch). His work there further shaped his character and outlook as part of the Platine region's social establishment. In the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, owners of large landholdings (including the Rosas family) provided food, equipment and protection for families living in areas under their control. Their private defence forces consisted primarily of labourers who were drafted as soldiers. Most of these peons, as such workers were called, were gauchos.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: The landed aristocracy of Spanish descent considered the illiterate, mixed-race gauchos, who comprised the majority of the population, to be ungovernable and untrustworthy. The gauchos were tolerated because there was no other labour force available, but were treated with contempt by the landowners. Rosas got along well with the gauchos in his service, despite his harsh, authoritarian temperament. He was known to dress like them, joke with them, take part in their horse-play, and pay them well, but he never allowed them to forget that he was their master rather than their equal. Shaped by the colonial society in which he lived, Rosas was conservative, an advocate of hierarchy and authority, like the other great landowners in the region.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Rosas acquired a working knowledge of administering ranch lands and, beginning in 1811, took charge of his family's "estancias". In 1813, he married Encarnación Ezcurra, daughter of a wealthy family from Buenos Aires. He soon afterwards sought to establish a career for himself, leaving his parents' estate. He produced salted meat and acquired landholdings in the process. As the years passed he became an "estanciero" (rancher) in his own right, accumulating land while establishing a successful partnership with second cousins from the politically powerful Anchorena clan. His hard work and organisational skills in deploying labour were key to his success, rather than creating new or applying nontraditional approaches to production.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: The May Revolution of 1810 marked the early stage of a process which later led to the disintegration of Spain's Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, independence and the eventual formation of Argentina. Rosas, like many landowners in the countryside, was suspicious of a movement advanced primarily by merchants and bureaucrats in the city of Buenos Aires. Rosas was specially outraged by the execution of Viceroy Santiago de Liniers at the hands of the revolutionaries. Rosas felt nostalgic about colonial times, seeing them as stable, orderly and prosperous.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: When the Congress of Tucumán severed all remaining ties with Spain in July 1816, Rosas and his peers accepted independence as an accomplished fact. Independence resulted in a breakup of the territories that had formed the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. The province of Buenos Aires fought a civil war with the other provinces over the degree of autonomy which the provincial governments were to have. The Unitarian Party supported the preeminence of Buenos Aires, while the Federalist Party defended provincial autonomy. A decade of strife over the issue destroyed the ties between capital and provinces, with new republics being declared throughout the country. Efforts by the Buenos Aires government to quash these independent states were met with determined local resistance. In 1820 Rosas and his gauchos, all dressed in red and nicknamed ""Colorados del Monte"" ("Reds of the Mount"), enlisted in the army of Buenos Aires as the Fifth Regiment of Militia. They repulsed invading provincial armies, saving Buenos Aires.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: At the end of the conflict, Rosas returned to his "estancias" having acquired prestige for his military service. He was promoted to cavalry colonel and was awarded further landholdings by the government. These additions, together with his successful business and fresh property acquisitions, greatly boosted his wealth. By 1830, he was the 10th largest landowner in the province of Buenos Aires (in which the city of the same name was located), owning 300,000 cattle and of land. With his newly gained influence, military background, vast landholdings and a private army of gauchos loyal only to him, Rosas became the quintessential caudillo, as provincial warlords in the region were known.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: National unity crumbled under the weight of a continuous round of civil wars, rebellions and coups. The Unitarian–Federalist struggle brought perennial instability while caudillos fought for power and laid waste to the countryside. By 1826, Rosas had built a power base, consisting of relatives, friends and clients, and joined the Federalist Party. He remained a strong advocate of his native province of Buenos Aires, with little concern for political ideology. In 1820, Rosas fought alongside the Unitarians because he saw the Federalist invasion as a menace to Buenos Aires. When the Unitarians sought to appease the Federalists by proposing to grant the other provinces a share in the customs revenues flowing through Buenos Aires, Rosas saw this as a threat to his province's interests. In 1827, four provinces led by Federalist caudillos rebelled against the Unitarian government. Rosas was the driving force behind the Federalist takeover of Buenos Aires and the election of Manuel Dorrego as provincial governor that year. Rosas was awarded with the post of general commander of the rural militias of the province of Buenos Aires on 14 July, which increased his influence and power.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: In December 1828 Juan Lavalle, the Unitarian governor of Buenos Aires had Dorrego seized and executed without trial. With Dorrego gone, Rosas filled the vacant Federalist leadership and rebelled against the Unitarians. He allied with Estanislao López, caudillo and ruler of Santa Fe Province, and they defeated Lavalle at the Battle of Márquez Bridge in April 1829. When Rosas entered the city of Buenos Aires in November of that year, he was hailed both as a victorious military leader and as the head of the Federalists. Rosas was considered a handsome man, standing tall with blond hair and "piercing blue eyes". Charles Darwin, who met Rosas during the "Beagle" survey expedition, assessed him as "a man of extraordinary character". British diplomat Henry Southern said that in "appearance Rosas resembles an English gentleman farmer—his manners are courteous without being refined. He is affable and agreeable in conversation, which however nearly always turns on himself, but his tone is pleasant and agreeable enough. His memory is stupendous: and his accuracy in all points of detail never failing."


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: On 6 December 1829, the House of Representatives of Buenos Aires elected Rosas governor and granted him "facultades extraordinarias" (extraordinary powers). This marked the beginning of his regime, described by historians as a dictatorship. He saw himself as a benevolent dictator, saying: "For me the ideal of good government would be paternal autocracy, intelligent, disinterested and indefatigable ... I have always admired the autocratic dictators who have been the first servants of their people. That is my great title: I have always sought to serve the country." He used his power to censor his critics and banish his enemies. He later justified these measures, stating: "When I took over the government I found the government in anarchy, divided into warring factions, reduced to pure chaos, a hell in miniature ..."


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Rosas' early administration was preoccupied with the severe deficits, large public debts and the impact of currency devaluation which his government inherited. A great drought that began in December 1828, which would last until April 1832, greatly impacted the economy. The Unitarians were still at large, controlling several provinces that had banded together in the Unitarian League. The capture of José María Paz, the main Unitarian leader, in March 1831 resulted in the end of the Unitarian–Federalist civil war and the collapse of the Unitarian League. Rosas was content, for the moment, to agree to recognize provincial autonomy in the Federal Pact. In an effort to alleviate the government's financial problems, he improved revenue collection while not raising taxes and curtailed expenditure.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: By the end of his first term, Rosas was generally credited with having staved off political and financial instability, but he faced increased opposition in the House of Representatives. All members of the House were Federalists, as Rosas had restored the legislature that had been in place under Dorrego, and which had subsequently been dissolved by Lavalle. A liberal Federalist faction, which accepted dictatorship as a temporary necessity, called for the adoption of a constitution. Rosas was unwilling to govern constrained by a constitutional framework and only grudgingly relinquished his dictatorial powers. His term of office ended soon after, on 5 December 1832.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: While the government in Buenos Aires was distracted with political infighting, ranchers began moving into territories in the south inhabited by indigenous peoples. The resulting conflict with native peoples necessitated a government response. Rosas steadfastly endorsed policies which supported this expansion. During his governorship he granted lands in the south to war veterans and to ranchers seeking alternative pasture lands during the drought. Although the south was regarded as a virtual desert at the time, it had great potential and resources for agricultural development, particularly for ranching operations. The government gave Rosas command of an army with orders to subdue the Indian tribes in the coveted territory. Rosas was generous to those Indians who surrendered, rewarding them with animals and goods. Although he personally disliked killing Indians, he relentlessly hunted those who refused to yield. The Desert Campaign lasted from 1833 to 1834, with Rosas subjugating the entire region. His conquest of the south opened many possibilities for further territorial expansion, which led him to state: "The fine territories, which extend from the Andes to the coast and down to the Magellan Straits are now wide open for our children."


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: While Rosas was away on the Desert Campaign in October 1833, a group of "Rosistas" (Rosas's supporters) laid siege to Buenos Aires. Inside the city, Rosas's wife, Encarnación, assembled a contingent of associates to aid the besiegers. The Revolution of the Restorers, as the "Rosista" coup came to be known, forced the provincial governor Juan Ramón Balcarce to resign. In quick succession, Balcarce was followed by two others who presided over weak and ineffective governments. The "Rosismo" (Rosism) had become a powerful faction within the Federalist Party, and pressured other factions to accept a return of Rosas, endowed with dictatorial powers, as the only way to restore stability. The House of Representatives yielded, and on 7 March 1835, Rosas was reelected governor and invested with the "suma del poder público" (sum of public power).


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: A plebiscite was held to determine whether the citizens of Buenos Aires supported Rosas's reelection and resumption of dictatorial powers. During his governorship from 1829 to 1832, Rosas had reduced the election process to a farce. He had installed loyal associates as justices of the peace, powerful officeholders with administrative and judicial functions who were also charged with tax collection, leading militia and presiding over elections. Through the exclusion of voters and intimidation of the opposition, the justices of the peace delivered any result Rosas favored. Half of the members of the House of Representatives faced reelection each year, and the opposition to Rosas had quickly been eliminated through rigged elections, allowing him to control the legislature. Control over finances had been stripped from the legislature, and its approval of legislation turned into a rubber stamp to preserve a semblance of democracy. The result of the 1835 election was a predictable 99.9 percent "yes" vote.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Rosas believed that the manipulation of elections were necessary for political stability, because most of the country's population was illiterate. He acquired absolute power over the province with the assent and support of most "estancieros" and businessmen, who shared his views. The "estancia" formed the power base on which Rosas relied. Lynch said that there "was a great deal of group cohesion and solidarity among the landed class. Rosas was the center of a vast kinship group based on land. He was surrounded by a closely knit economic and political network linking deputies, law officers, officials, and military who were also landowners and related among themselves or with Rosas."


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Rosas's authority and influence spread far beyond the House of Representatives. He exercised tight control over the bureaucracy as well as his cabinet, stating: "Do not imagine that my Ministers are anything but my Secretaries. I put them in their offices to listen and report, and nothing more." His supporters were rewarded with positions within the state apparatus, and anyone he deemed a threat was purged. Opposition newspapers were burned in public squares. Rosas created an elaborate cult of personality, presenting himself as an almighty and fatherlike figure who protected the people. His portraits were carried in street demonstrations and placed on church altars to be venerated. "Rosismo" was no longer a mere faction within the Federalist ranks; it had become a political movement. As early as 1829, Rosas had confided to an Uruguayan diplomatic envoy: "I tell you I am not a Federalist, and I have never belonged to that party." During his governorship, he still claimed to have favoured Federalism against Unitarianism, although in practice Federalism had by that time been subsumed into the "Rosismo" movement.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Rosas established a totalitarian regime, in which the government sought to dictate every aspect of public and private life. It was mandated that the slogan "Death to the Savage Unitarians" be inscribed at the head of all official documents. Anyone on the state payroll—from military officers, priests, to civil servants and teachers—was obliged to wear a red badge with the inscription "Federation or Death". Every male was required to have a "federal look", i.e., to sport a large moustache and sideburns, leading many to wear false moustaches. The red colour—symbol of both the Federalist Party and of "Rosismo"—became omnipresent in the province of Buenos Aires. Soldiers wore red "chiripás" (blankets worn as trousers), caps and jackets, and their horses sported red accoutrements. Civilians were also required to wear the colour. A red waistcoat, red badge and red hat band were required for men, while women wore ribbons in that colour and children donned school uniforms based upon "Rosismo" paradigms. Building exteriors and interiors were also decorated in red.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Most Catholic clergy in Buenos Aires willingly backed Rosas' regime. The Jesuits, the only ones who refused to do so, were expelled from the country. The lower social strata in Buenos Aires, which formed the vast majority of its populace, experienced no improvement in the conditions under which they lived. When Rosas slashed expenditures, he cut resources from education, social services, general welfare and public works. None of the lands confiscated from Indians and Unitarians were turned over to rural workers, including gauchos. Black people did not experience any improvement in their conditions either. Rosas was a slave-owner, and helped revive the slave trade. Despite doing little to promote their interests, he remained popular among blacks and gauchos. He employed blacks, patronized their festivities and attended their "candombles". The gauchos admired his leadership and willingness to fraternize with them to some extent.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: In addition to purges, banishments and censorship, Rosas took measures against the opposition and anyone else he deemed a threat that historians have considered state terrorism. Terror was a tool used to intimidate dissident voices, to shore up support among his own partisans and to exterminate his foes. His targets were denounced, sometimes inaccurately, as having ties to Unitarians. Those victimised included members of his government and party who were suspected of being insufficiently loyal. If actual opponents were not at hand, the regime found other targets that were punished to make an example. A climate of fear was used to create unquestioning conformity to Rosas' dictates.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: State terrorism was carried out by the "Mazorca", an armed parapolice unit of the "Sociedad Popular Restauradora" political organization. The "Sociedad Popular Restauradora" and the "Mazorca" were creations of Rosas, who retained tight control over both. The tactics of the "mazorqueros" included neighborhood sweeps in which houses would be searched and occupants intimidated. Others who fell into their power were arrested, tortured and killed. Killings were generally by shooting, lance-thrusting or throat-slitting. Many were castrated, or had their beards scalped or their tongues cut out. Modern estimates report around 2,000 people were killed from 1829 until 1852.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Although a judicial system still existed in Buenos Aires, Rosas removed any independence the courts might have exercised, either by controlling appointments to the judiciary, or by circumventing their authority entirely. He would sit in judgement over cases, issuing sentences which included fines, service in the army, imprisonment, or execution. The exercise of state terror as a tool of intimidation was restricted to Rosas himself; his subordinates had no control over it. It was used against specific targets, rather than randomly. Terrorism was orchestrated rather than a product of popular zeal, was targeted for effect rather than indiscriminate. Anarchic demonstrations, vigilantism and disorderliness were antithetical to a regime touting a law and order agenda. Foreigners were exempted from abuses, as were people too poor or inconsequential to serve as effective examples. Victims were selected for their usefulness as tools of intimidation.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Throughout the late 1830s and early 1840s, Rosas faced a series of major threats to his power. The Unitarians found an ally in Andrés de Santa Cruz, the ruler of the Peru–Bolivian Confederation. Rosas declared war against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation on 19 March 1837, joining the War of the Confederation between Chile and Peru–Bolivia. The "Rosista" army played a minor role in the conflict, which resulted in the overthrow of Santa Cruz and the dissolution of the Peru–Bolivian Confederation. On 28 March 1838, France declared a blockade of the Port of Buenos Aires, eager to extend its influence over the region. Unable to confront the French, Rosas increased internal repression to forestall potential uprisings against his regime.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: The blockade caused severe damage to the economy across all the provinces, as they exported their goods through the port of Buenos Aires. Despite the 1831 Federal Pact, all provinces had long been discontent with the "de facto" primacy that Buenos Aires province held over them. On 28 February 1839, the province of Corrientes revolted and attacked both Buenos Aires and Entre Ríos provinces. Rosas counterattacked and defeated the rebels, killing their leader, the governor of Corrientes. In June, Rosas uncovered a plot by dissident "Rosistas" to oust him from power in what became known as the Maza conspiracy. Rosas imprisoned some of the plotters and executed others. Manuel Vicente Maza, president of both the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court, was murdered by Rosas's "Mazorca" agents within the halls of the parliament on the pretext that his son was involved in the conspiracy. In the countryside, "estancieros", including a younger brother of Rosas, revolted, beginning the Rebellion of the South. The rebels attempted to ally with France, but were easily crushed, many losing their lives and properties in the process.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: In September 1839, Juan Lavalle returned after ten years in exile. He allied with the governor of Corrientes, which revolted once again, and invaded Buenos Aires province at the head of Unitarian troops armed and supplied by the French. Emboldened by Lavalle's actions, the provinces of Tucumán, Salta, La Rioja, Catamarca and Jujuy formed the Coalition of the North and also rebelled against Buenos Aires. Great Britain intervened on behalf of Rosas, and France lifted the blockade on 29 October 1840. The struggle with his internal enemies was hard-fought. By December 1842, Lavalle had been killed and the rebellious provinces subdued, except for Corrientes, which was only defeated in 1847. Terrorism was also employed on the battlefield, as the "Rosistas" refused to take prisoners. The defeated men had their throats cut and their heads put on display.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Around 1845, Rosas managed to establish absolute dominance over the region. He exercised complete control over all aspects of society with the solid backing of the army. Rosas was raised from colonel to brigadier general (the highest army rank) on 18 December 1829. On 12 November 1840 he declined the newly created and higher rank of grand marshal ("gran mariscal"), which had been bestowed on him by the House of Representatives. The army was led by officers who had backgrounds and values similar to his. Confident of his power, Rosas made some concessions by returning confiscated properties to their owners, disbanding the "Mazorca" and ending torture and political assassinations. The inhabitants of Buenos Aires still dressed and behaved according to the set of rules Rosas had imposed, but the climate of constant and widespread fear greatly diminished.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: When Rosas was elected governor for the first time in 1829, he held no power outside the province of Buenos Aires. There was no national government or national parliament. The former Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata had been succeeded by the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, which by 1831, following the Federal Pact and officially from 22 May 1835, had increasingly been known as the Argentine Confederation, or simply, Argentina. Rosas's victory over the other Argentine provinces in the early 1840s turned them into satellites of Buenos Aires. He gradually put in place provincial governors who were either allied or too weak to have real independence, which allowed him to exercise dominance over all the provinces. By 1848, Rosas began calling his government the "government of the confederacy" and the "general government", which would have been inconceivable a few years before. The next year, with acquiescence of the provinces, he named himself "Supreme Head of the Confederacy" and became the indisputable ruler of Argentina.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: As Rosas aged and his health declined, the question of who would succeed him became a growing concern among his supporters. His wife Encarnación had died in October 1838 after a long illness. Although devastated by his loss, Rosas exploited her death to raise support for his regime. Not long after, at the age of 47, he began an affair with his fifteen-year-old maid, María Eugenia Castro, with whom he had five illegitimate children. From his marriage to Encarnación, Rosas had two children: Juan Bautista Pedro and Manuela Robustiana. Rosas established a hereditary dictatorship, naming the children from his marriage as his successors, stating that "[t]hey are both worthy children of my beloved Encarnación, and if, God willing, I die, then you will find that they are capable of succeeding me." It is unknown whether Rosas was a closet monarchist. Later during his exile, Rosas declared that Princess Alice of the United Kingdom would be the ideal ruler for his country. Nonetheless, in public he stated that his regime was republican in nature.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: The breakup of the old Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata during the 1810s eventually resulted in the emergence of independent nations of Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay in the northern portion of the Viceroyalty, while its southern territories coalesced into the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata. Rosas planned to restore, if not all, at least a considerable part of the former borders of the old Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. He never recognized the independence of Paraguay and regarded it a rebel Argentine province that would inevitably be reconquered. He sent an army under Manuel Oribe who invaded Uruguay and conquered most of the country, except for its capital Montevideo that endured a long siege starting in 1843. When pressed by the British, Rosas declined to guarantee Uruguayan independence. In South America, all potential foreign threats to Rosas's plans of conquest collapsed, including Gran Colombia and the Peru–Bolivian Confederation, or were troubled by internal turmoil, as was the Empire of Brazil. To reinforce his claims over Uruguay and Paraguay, and maintain his dominance over the Argentine provinces, Rosas blockaded the port of Montevideo and closed the interior rivers to foreign trade.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: The loss of trade was unacceptable to Britain and France. On 17 September 1845 both nations established the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata and enforced the free navigation in the Río de la Plata Basin (or Platine region). Argentina resisted the pressure and fought back to a standstill. This undeclared war caused more economic harm to France and Britain than to Argentina. The British faced increasing pressure at home once they realised that the access gained to the other ports within the Platine region did not compensate for the loss of trade with Buenos Aires. Britain ended all hostilities and lifted the blockade on 15 July 1847, followed by France on 12 June 1848. Rosas had successfully resisted the two most powerful nations on Earth; his standing, and Argentina's, increased among Hispanic American nations. The Venezuelan humanist Andrés Bello, summarizing the prevailing opinion, considered Rosas among "the leading ranks of the great men of America".


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Although his prestige was on the rise, Rosas made no serious attempts to further liberalise his regime. Every year he presented his resignation and the pliant House of Representatives predictably declined, claiming that maintaining him in office was vital for the nation's welfare. Rosas also allowed exiled Argentines to return to their homeland, but only because he was so confident of his control and that no one was willing to risk defying him. The execution in August 1848 of the pregnant Camila O'Gorman, charged with a forbidden romance with a priest, caused a backlash throughout the continent. Nonetheless, it served as a clear warning that Rosas had no intention of loosening his grip.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Rosas failed to realize that discontent was steadily growing throughout the country. Throughout the 1840s he became increasingly secluded in his country house in Palermo, some miles away from Buenos Aires. There he ruled and lived under heavy protection provided by guards and patrols. He declined to meet with his ministers and relied solely on secretaries. His daughter Manuela replaced his wife at his right hand and became the link between Rosas and the outside world. The reason for Rosas's increasing isolation was given by a member of his secretariat: "The dictator is not stupid: he knows the people hate him; he goes in constant fear and always has one eye on the chance to rob and abuse them and the other on making a getaway. He has a horse ready saddled at the door of his office day and night".


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Meanwhile, Brazil, now ascendant under Emperor Dom Pedro II, provided support to the Uruguayan government that still held out in Montevideo, as well as to the ambitious Justo José de Urquiza, a caudillo in Entre Ríos who rebelled against Rosas. Once one of Rosas' most trusted lieutenants, Urquiza now claimed to fight for a constitutional government, although his ambition to become head of state was barely disguised. In retaliation, Rosas declared war on Brazil on 18 August 1851, beginning the Platine War. The army under Oribe in Uruguay surrendered to Urquiza in October. With arms and financial aid given by Brazil, Urquiza then marched through Argentine territory heading to Buenos Aires.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Uncharacteristically, Rosas remained passive throughout the conflict. The Argentine ruler lost heart once he realized that he had fallen into a trap. Even if he defeated Urquiza, his forces would probably be weakened enough to prevent him from challenging the Brazilian army that was ready to invade Argentina. With no other alternative, Rosas remarked: "There is no other way; we have to play for the high stakes and go for everything. Here we are, and from here there is no retreat." After an unsuccessful battle against Urquiza on 3 February 1852, Rosas fled to Buenos Aires. Once there, he disguised himself and boarded a ship that took him to Britain to live in exile. Embittered, he remarked: "It is not the people who have overthrown me. It is the monkeys, the Brazilians."


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Rosas arrived in Plymouth, Great Britain, on 26 April 1852. The British gave him asylum, paid for his travel and welcomed him with a 21-gun salute. These honours were granted because, according to the British Foreign Secretary James Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury, "General Rosas was no common refugee, but one who had shown great distinction and kindness to the British merchants who had traded with his country". Months before his fall, Rosas had arranged with the British chargé d'affaires Captain Robert Gore for protection and asylum in the event of his defeat. Both his children by Encarnación followed him into exile, although Juan Bautista soon returned with his family to Argentina. His daughter Manuela married the son of an old associate of Rosas, an act which the former dictator never forgave. A domineering father, Rosas wanted his daughter to remain devoted to him alone. Although he forbade her from writing or visiting, Manuela remained loyal to him and maintained contact.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: The new Argentine government confiscated all of Rosas' properties and tried him as a criminal, later sentencing him to death. Rosas was appalled that most of his friends, supporters and allies abandoned him and became either silent or openly critical of him. "Rosismo" vanished overnight. "The landed class, supporters and beneficiaries of Rosas, now had to make their peace—and their profits—with his successors. Survival, not allegiance, was their politics", argued Lynch. Urquiza, a one-time ally and later an enemy, reconciled with Rosas and sent him financial assistance, hoping for political support in return—although Rosas had scant political capital left. Rosas followed Argentina's developments while in exile, always hoping for an opportunity to return, but he never again insinuated himself into Argentine affairs.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: In exile Rosas was not destitute, but he lived modestly amid financial constraints during the remainder of his life. A very few loyal friends sent him money, but it was never enough. He sold one of his "estancias" before the confiscation and became a tenant farmer in Swaythling, near Southampton. He employed a housekeeper and two to four labourers, to whom he paid above-average wages. Despite constant concern over his shortage of funds, Rosas found joy in farm life, once remarking: "I now consider myself happy on this farm, living in modest circumstances as you see, earning a living the hard way by the sweat of my brow". A contemporary described him in final years: "He was then eighty, a man still handsome and imposing; his manners were most refined, and the modest environment did nothing to lessen his air of a great lord, inherited from his family." After a walk on a cold day, Rosas caught pneumonia and died at 07:00 on the morning of 14 March 1877. Following a private mass attended by his family and a few friends, he was buried in the town cemetery of Southampton.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Serious attempts to reassess Rosas's reputation began in the 1880s with the publication of scholarly works by Adolfo Saldías and Ernesto Quesada. Later, a more blatant "Revisionist" movement would flourish under "Nacionalismo" (Nationalism). "Nacionalismo" was a political movement that appeared in Argentina in the 1920s and reached its apex in the 1930s. It was the Argentine equivalent of the authoritarian ideologies that arose during the same period, such as Nazism, Fascism and Integralism. Argentine Nationalism was an authoritarian, anti-Semitic, racist and misogynistic political movement with support for racially based pseudo-scientific theories such as eugenics. "Revisionismo" (Revisionism) was the historiographical wing of Argentine "Nacionalismo". The main goal of Argentine "Nacionalismo" was to establish a national dictatorship. For the "Nacionalismo" movement, Rosas and his regime were idealized and portrayed as paragons of governmental virtue. "Revisionismo" served as a useful tool, as the main purpose of the revisionists within the "Nacionalismo" agenda was to rehabilitate Rosas's image.


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: Despite a decades-long struggle, "Revisionismo" failed to be taken seriously. According to Michael Goebel, the revisionists had a "lack of interest in scholarly standards" and were known for "their institutional marginality in the intellectual field". They also never succeeded in changing mainstream views regarding Rosas. William Spence Robertson said in 1930: "Among the enigmatical personages of the 'Age of Dictators' in South America none played a more spectacular role than the Argentine dictator, Juan Manuel de Rosas, whose gigantic and ominous figure bestrode the Plata River for more than twenty years. So despotic was his power that Argentine writers have themselves styled this age of their history as 'The Tyranny of Rosas'." In 1961, William Dusenberry said: "Rosas is a negative memory in Argentina. He left behind him the black legend of Argentine history—a legend which Argentines in general wish to forget. There is no monument to him in the entire nation; no park, plaza, or street bears his name."


title: Juan Manuel de Rosas

text: In the 1980s, Argentina was a fractured, deeply divided nation, having faced military dictatorships, severe economic crises and a defeat in the Falklands War. President Carlos Menem decided to repatriate Rosas's remains and take advantage of the occasion to unite the Argentines. Menem believed that if the Argentines could forgive Rosas and his regime, they might do the same regarding the more recent and vividly remembered past. On 30 September 1989, an elaborate and enormous cortege organized by the government was held, after which the remains of the Argentine ruler were interred in his family vault at La Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires. Closely allied with neorevisionists, Menem (and his fellow Peronist presidential successors Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner) have honoured Rosas on banknotes, postage stamps and monuments, causing mixed reactions among the public. Rosas remains a controversial figure among Argentines, who "have long been fascinated and outraged" by him, as historian John Lynch noted.


title: Jameel Khan

text: Jameel Khan is an Indian actor famously known for his tv series Gullak. Born in Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh, Khan was educated at Sherwood College, Nainital and Aligarh Muslim University. He moved to Mumbai to pursue his acting career, and has acted in films such as "Asambhav", "Gangs of Wasseypur", "Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela" and "Baby". He also acted in "Beneath the Sea of Lights" starring Academy Award Nominee Barkhad Abdi and Jim Sarbh.


title: Miss Universe 2011

text: Miss Universe 2011 was the 60th Miss Universe pageant, held at the Credicard Hall in São Paulo, Brazil on September 12, 2011.


title: Miss Universe 2011

text: At the end of the event, Ximena Navarrete of Mexico crowned Leila Lopes of Angola as Miss Universe 2011. It is the first victory of Angola, and the latest country as of 2022 to win its first crown at the pageant.


title: Miss Universe 2011

text: Contestants from 89 countries and territories competed in this year's pageant, surpassing the previous record of 86 contestants in 2006. The pageant was hosted by Andy Cohen and Natalie Morales, while Jeannie Mai and Shandi Finnessey provided commentary and analysis throughout the event. Brazilian singer-songwriter Bebel Gilberto and Brazilian pop singer Claudia Leitte performed in this year's pageant.


title: Miss Universe 2011

text: On December 16, 2010, Donald Trump, owner of the Miss Universe Organization, and Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization, announced that the 60th anniversary of the competition will take place in São Paulo, Brazil on September 12, 2011. This came months after Trump negotiated with the media conglomerate Grupo Bandeirantes de Comunicação to host the pageant in São Paulo. According to Joao Carlos Saad, president of Grupo Bandeirantes, the network was pleased that they have reached an agreement with Miss Universe to host the pageant in São Paulo, Brazil. The event aired on NBC in the United States, with a Spanish simulcast on Telemundo.


title: Miss Universe 2011

text: Contestants from 89 countries and territories were selected to compete in the competition. Six of these delegates were appointees to their positions after being a runner-up of their national pageant or being selected through a casting process, while three were selected to replace the original dethroned winner.


title: Miss Universe 2011

text: Evalina van Putten was appointed to represent Curaçao after Monifa Jansen, Miss Curaçao 2011, did not meet the age requirements. However, Jansen competed in the pageant the following year. Mayra Aldana, the first runner-up of Nuestra Belleza El Salvador 2011, was appointed to represent El Savador after Alejandra Ochoa, Nuestra Belleza Universo 2011, suffered from chronic respiratory illness. Mai Phương Thúy, Miss Vietnam 2006, was supposed to represent Vietnam at Miss Universe. However, Mai refused to participate due to personal reasons and since "Vietnam now has a lot of promising new faces". Due to this, the Ministry of Culture of Vietnam granted the permission to appoint Vũ Thị Hoàng My, the first runner-up of Miss Vietnam 2010, as the representative of Vietnam at Miss Universe.


title: Miss Universe 2011

text: The 2011 edition saw the returns of the Cayman Islands, Chile, Estonia, Montenegro, Portugal, Saint Lucia, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Vietnam. Portugal last competed in 2002, Chile last competed in 2006, Saint Lucia last competed in 2007, Turks and Caicos last competed in 2008, while the others last competed in 2009. Norway and Zambia withdrew. Sara Nicole Andersen of Norway was crowned ten days after the arrival of contestants in São Paulo. Due to this, Andersen withdrew from the competition. However, Andersen competed in the pageant the following year. Zambia withdrew after its respective organization failed to hold a national competition or appoint a delegate.


title: Miss Universe 2011

text: Lisa Morgan of Zimbabwe was supposed to compete in the pageant. However, she was not allowed to compete after the Miss Universe Organization denied her participation and went on to compete in Miss International 2011 held in Chengdu, China instead.


title: Miss Universe 2011

text: The Miss Universe Organization introduced several specific changes to the format for this edition. The results of the preliminary competition— which consisted of the swimsuit and evening gown competition, and the closed-door interview, determined the 15 semifinalists. For the first time in its 60-year history, the organization will implement a pre-pageant fan vote where fans are able to vote for their favorite contestant to automatically advance to the semifinals. This changes the number of semifinalists from 15 to 16. Aside from that, viewers can also rank each contestant during the live pageant.