A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Fla., Thursday. It was the first recycled rocket launched by SpaceX, the biggest leap yet in its bid to drive down costs and speed up flights. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

Reusing rockets is key to transporting humans to other planets because passengers otherwise will be making one-way trips, the president of SpaceX said Wednesday at the 33rd annual Space Symposium at The Broadmoor hotel.

Gwynne Shotwell, who also is chief operating officer of the privately held rocket launch company, said the only alternative to reuse is finding materials and assembling a rocket to enable humans to make the return trip to Earth. SpaceX launched a reused rocket last week for the first time - a process that took nearly a year to complete after the spacecraft was used April 9 to ferry cargo to space, then later landed successfully on an Pacific Ocean platform.

"This ushers in a new era with more enterprise in space," Shotwell said during a brief speech and question-and-answer session. "It has taken us 15 years to get it right, and it was a lot of work. But the only way to explore the solar system and return is for the system to be reusable. Otherwise, it is a one-way trip unless they (the crew) learn to build a rocket there."

SpaceX still has a lot of work to do to reach its goal of being able to reuse a rocket within 24 hours of its first launch, which Shotwell agreed is the company's goal - though she didn't say how quickly it would achieve it.

Once the goal is met, the cost of reusing the spacecraft will drop from half the cost of building a new rocket to 10 percent, she said.

"We learned from the (space) shuttle program that reuse is really hard, especially refurbishment after the rocket has been in the ocean. Fortunately, we only needed minimal refurbishment on the engine," Shotwell said.

A reusable spacecraft is a key element of the company's planned mission to Mars because "when we do that, we will have the ability to bring (the crew) back. It is important to live on more than one planet. It is risk management for humans."

She told the crowd she "hope you all are thinking of buying tickets to Mars" and took a shot a competitors who have shunned reusing rockets as not economically feasible, saying she believes "you will see that position changing."

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Reusing rockets is best way to advance space travel, SpaceX officer tells symposium attendees - Colorado Springs Gazette