Yeah, ISS Dragon missions now have lots of margin. Other LEO missions also allow RTLS...their first return to land was on a launch of Orbcomm satellites (flight 20). It would have to be a very small satellite to allow it after a geosynchronous launch, so that's probably not going to happen.Arioch wrote:It also produced an interesting trail:Mjolnir wrote:SpaceX is getting a bit more aggressive with their first stage recovery maneuvers, with less waiting around in case something's gone wrong. With their latest launch, the first stage pitched back and did the boostback burn just seconds after separation, while still inside the second stage's exhaust plume. The interaction of their exhausts, two 3 km/s streams of rarefied gases colliding head on, produced this sight:
https://scontent-vie1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t3 ... 7982_o.jpg
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160721.html
They could try this on this particular flight (I assume) because it was an ISS supply mission, which is in a very low orbit.
Most or all Falcon Heavy flights will have the side boosters RTLS, though. That'll involve two boosters doing boostback burns while center core is doing a full 9-engine burn...that should be interesting to see. It sounds like the first flight will bring the center core back to land as well (they're building two additional landing pads for the Heavy), but I don't know how common that'll be.