No Cigars for Elon

Maybe some sort of parachute to slow it down some before firing engines....?

That what I find hard to understand. If the first stage has that much value for reuse. Why not adapt it with a system just as the capsule has. Just salvage it from the ocean surface.

That's a really tough way to land, with all the weight balanced over a small point of thrust, and with the blow-back from the exhaust pushing the rocket around. It's like trying to balance a heavy wet mop upside down on your fingertip, in the dark, during a hurricane.

It would be easier if the rockets were at the top (thrusting downward at perhaps a 60 degree angle), with the weight suspended underneath. But I know they want to use the same rockets for launch and landing, so top-mounted rockets ain't gonna happen.

Here's a vine video of the last few seconds of the landing, but it cuts off just before the rocket falls over.

https://vine.co/search/falcon+9

Better video.

It didn't just fall over, it then blew up, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhMSzC1crr0

Seeing that video, I agree with Ozzb up in post #2.

Don't try for some fancy 'land in the launch position' stunt on a rocking platform out at sea.

Just splash the booster, haul it out, towel it off, and ferry it back to base for refueling and maintenance. (You to PM on helicopters CONSTANTLY, and even civilian planes go through a pre-flight checklist before every take-off, even if they landed just fine five minutes ago, and neither of those go through the tresses that booster does. That booster SHOULD thoroughly inspected between uses, even if it means disassembling it and rebuilding it while on the boat ride back to the refueling station.)

Keep it simple, SpaseX guys, you're not out there to play the most expensive version of Lunar Lander ever made, you're there to solve a problem. "Adding needless complexity and risk' just adds to the problem side, not the solution side.

Give it a novelty shop cigar....

We three kings of Orient are....

A suggested alternative capture solution .... OK, now improve on the idea below.

This is pretty cool. I like it when guys innovate, put their money with their mouth is and chase their dreams.

Guys like Elon Musk and others don't let the naysayers, the criticizers and the non-achievers tell them what they can or can't do. Nothing great has ever been accomplished by a complacent, apathetic person.

The achievers always say, "bet against me" and prove them wrong.

I like the drawing that DON from Oz showed. I'm not an engineer but that scenario seems like there would be more margin for error, i.e. unpredictable circumstances.

I have watch these two attemps several times. Also went back and looked at the test trials. Where they took off and land. Their descending a lot faster then the trials. Need to slow it down sooner.