> I remember clearly thinking the whole idea of landing the booster as being completely unrealistic, verging on not possible. SpaceX also had that same opinion

> I remember clearly thinking the whole idea of landing the booster as being completely unrealistic, verging on not possible. SpaceX also had that same opinion originally. I believe their first concept was to use parachutes for the first stage (and maybe splash down in the ocean for recovery). They interviewed an engineer from Masten Space Systems (who have really cool test platforms). He was talking to them about VTVL (vertical takeoff, vertical landing) systems, and SpaceX basically just laughed at him.