38 tons for RTLS is 76,000 pounds, so the figure isn't really all that exaggerated for the worst case. In any case, the fuel is cheap relative to everything el

38 tons for RTLS is 76,000 pounds, so the figure isn't really all that exaggerated for the worst case. In any case, the fuel is cheap relative to everything else so as long as they can put the payload on orbit expending almost any amount of fuel to recover the rocket is perfectly reasonable. Not sure why the ULA guy thought spending 100,000 of fuel to recover a 15 million dollar core would be a bad thing.