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Well, they obviously plan to land on land. Why do you think I ever thought otherwise? It just seems weird to me that this fluke of geography would force them t

by arrrg 13y ago

Well, they obviously plan to land on land. Why do you think I ever thought otherwise? It just seems weird to me that this fluke of geography would force them turn around and land. It seems like they could launch in Texas or somewhere and then land in Florida or something.

JshWright 13y ago
It would take a lot more fuel to reach Florida from Texas than it would take to boost back to the launch site. The first stage is only a couple hundred kilometers downrange at stage separation. Florida is >1,000 kilometers away from Texas. The other advantage to boosting back to the launch site is that any failures result in the first stage crashing into the ocean. If you put it on a ballistic trajectory towards Miami... the worst case scenarios get a lot worse...