[Dagnabitt]

Are they going to try to soft-land / soft-splash the booster?

[Jack Hydrazine]

According to this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_launches

Second Falcon 9 booster with landing legs. Following second-stage separation, SpaceX will conduct a controlled-descent test of the discarded booster vehicle.

and this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Falcon_9_booster_post-mission,_controlled-descent,_test_program#Falcon_9_booster_post-mission.2C_controlled-descent_tests

Test flight 3

The third test flight and another attempt at recovery of the returned booster is planned for June 2014 on Falcon 9 Flight 10. Whereas the previous test did its “soft landing” some hundreds of kilometers off the Florida coast, this flight is aiming for a boost-back trajectory that will attempt the simulated ocean landing much nearer the coast, and closer to the original launch location at Cape Canaveral.

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I think SpaceX should not waste any fuel on trying to land it back on or near the cape. They need to buy a large boat that can be modified with a platform that can capture the booster as soon as it lands and bring it back to shore.

Here’s another test of their F9R test vehicle but this time with set of steerable grid fins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgLBIdVg3EM