The engineering involved in pulling this off is amazing. I would like to see the cost benefit analysis of what this costs per pound compared to disposable rockets, purely from an educational standpoint
Interested in the capture of that thing on the barge. Its way top heavy to just politely set there like that, and with ocean swells making a very unstable platform the military usually sends a squad of expendables out to lash the craft to the deck. Im am guessing their may be some kind of magnetic capturing to hold it in place as well as hi-tech Z-drives powering the barge for precision station keeping and pitch and yaw control of the barge.
Whatever the case, they seem to be doing it right.
Agreed. Remarkable engineering accomplishment.
I'm amazed how (relatively) little fuel it takes to reduce first stage velocity to zero.