As far as I know, this is only the second turbopump fed liquid rocket to land vertically, after DC-X (that became DC-XA). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv9n9

As far as I know, this is only the second turbopump fed liquid rocket to land vertically, after DC-X (that became DC-XA). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv9n9Casp1o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv9n9Casp1o This is important, as in practice only turbopump rockets have enough performance for orbital uses. If it can routinely and safely land vertically, then it's very easy to build a reusable first stage out of this. If everything works out, a reusable Falcon could fly every few days: Ideally you'd just refuel and go again, like an airplane. In this first generation though I expect a lot of maintenance and handwork by lots of people every flight. This will require a whole ecosystem too: low maintenance satellites that can be slapped on the rocket and launched at any time. Otherwise very flexible operations too like low overhead range and radar tracking sevices, safety zones etc. If the rocket can abort and land in case of problems, and demonstrates good safety by flying a lot, then a lot of safety criteria can be relaxed, which should enable better flexibility.