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The US Air Force is interested in purchasing rides on beforehand flown SpaceX rockets to put military satellites into space, a move anticipated that would cut dispatch costs for the Pentagon, the leader of the Air Force Space Command said on Thursday.

Flying on reused rockets turned into a reality seven days prior when exclusive Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, propelled an interchanges satellite on a Falcon 9 supporter that already put a load send into space for NASA.

That Falcon fundamental stage had been recouped from a fruitful profit arriving for a sea stage not long after its lady flight last April, then was relaunched and rescued again last Thursday, denoting a spaceflight first.

“I would be agreeable if we somehow managed to fly on a reused sponsor,” General John “Jay” Raymond told correspondents at the US Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. “They’ve demonstrated they can do it. … It will motivate us to lower cost.”

SpaceX has so far won three dispatch contracts to fly military and national security satellites – business already granted only to United Launch Alliance, an organization of Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

Each one of those flights will occur on new Falcon 9 rockets.

SpaceX, possessed and worked by innovation business person Elon Musk, has an overabundance of more than 70 missions worth more than $10 billion.

After a week ago’s historic point dispatch, Musk said the organization wanted to fly around 20 more rockets this year, including the introduction launch of its new substantial lift vehicle. Up to six of those missions, including the Falcon Heavy, will utilize beforehand flown sponsors, he said.

Talking at the symposium on Wednesday, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the cost of repairing and reflying the Falcon 9 first stage was “significantly not as much as a large portion of” the cost of assembling another supporter – the most costly piece of the rocket. SpaceX’s site records the cost of a fundamental Falcon 9 dispatch at $62 million.

SpaceX hopes to diminish costs significantly further.

The organization’s next objective is to dispatch and give back a rocket and relaunch it inside 24 hours. “That is the point at which we’ll truly feel like we have reusability right,” Shotwell said.

Raymond said the Air Force would need to confirm that an utilized supporter could securely convey its satellites into space.

“I’m really agreeable we’ll get settled with doing it,” Raymond said. “This is recently starting.”