One of the flight controller's on the CRS-5 mission calls out 1.8 km/s shortly before MECO (main engine cut off). So it's traveling over 4,000 mph. Different missions have different trajectory and velocity requirements. On the DSCOVR mission, 2350 m/s was announced shortly before MECO which is over 5,200 mph.

I scanned the article but didn't see the 16 mile number, where is that coming from?

I can't give you hard numbers off of the top of my head but there are a lot of variables. Different missions require different trajectories and payloads vary in mass significantly. The DSCOVR mission was actually a light payload, but it was a "deep space" mission requiring a very high velocity which is why the landing point was so far out to sea. So to quote Elon Musk, the first stage was "hauling a**." But there are a lot of missions where the stage is lofted more vertically or is traveling much slower when it separates. For those trajectories, there is about a 30% "payload hit", that is to say that for any payload massing 70% of the F9's maximum capability, they can include enough fuel to RTLS. If I recall correctly, landing on the barge incurs about a 15% payload hit on those more typical trajectories.

So for SpaceX, it comes down to economics. They have a barge on the east coast and are building one on the west coast for missions that don't have the margins to RTLS. But it saves them money to RTLS because then they don't have to pay crew for support ships and everything else involved in operating the landing platform. And landing on land (once approved), will always be less risk since the weather will be the same as the launch weather and there won't be 30 ft waves bouncing the landing pad around. So if conditions are good to launch, they will also be good to land.

As far as using an island or building a stationary platform goes, that isn't ideal for several reasons. A lack of available islands being one, but also it's location would always be a comprise because of all the varying trajectories. By using a barge (aka Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship), you can place it anywhere in the ocean for all the exceptions to RTLS, rather than only catch a subset.

Who needs a reason beyond the fact that they are delicious?

No but it serves political purposes. That's why it's illegal to show returning body bags and coffins. That's why the mainstream media refuses to show pictures of dead Iraqi women and children. I can't applaud the journalistic integrity of showing this video if they won't fight for the right to show videos and pictures that expose the whole truth.

ISIS is not justifiable, but that doesn't make it OK that the US media works as the propaganda machine of the US military.

ISIS isn't my enemy. They are disgusting, evil, horrible, shit-lickers. But they are not my enemy and we (the US) can't fight someone else's civil war because we will fuck it up. We will use outrage and compassion to send in troops, but the goals won't be humanitarian. They will be "national interests." We will make alliances with people diametrically opposed to true freedom and democracy in the the interest of "stability" and access to "resources." We do it every single time and until we learn not to do that, we should stay the hell out.

In summary, we are really bad at liberating people. I wish that was not true, but it it. We're great at liberating resources and we're really good at destroying stuff. Sadly that won't help "make us safe."

And we should tell the whole truth. Show videos of Saudi Arabian women being beheaded for "infidelity." Show the returning body bags (few though they are in comparison to the collateral damage.) Show what life is like now that we "liberated" Iraq.

As others have pointed out, showing this video is propaganda because of all that is not shown.

Exactly. Where are the pictures of the returning body bags? No where to be found because it's illegal now. How is that for "freedom?" And the mainstream news has't fought it at all. They should be fighting for the right to show the whole truth, but they don't.

ISIS is barbaric. We should know that. The governments of where they reside should be fighting them tooth and nail. And we should be shown the consequences of our actions too. That would be "fair and balanced."

Absolutely true. Interesting that it's illegal for media to show "returning" fallen soldiers, even just a photo of a body bag or coffin. I am not apologizing for the extremist actions, I just wish our media was allowed to show "the whole truth." Hell, I'd be happy if they even tried to fight for the right to show the whole truth. But they rolled over and play nice with the military so all we get is spin and half-truths.

Not to be pedantic. Well, OK, a little pedantic, but Germany never attacked us and when Japan attacked us we were not the pre-eminent military power of the day. Germany was. They expected us to role over and stop sending supplies to their enemies. And they had reason to think that we might do that.

To be clear, I am not arguing against the US joining WWII, nor in taking the fight to the Germans. That was the right call. Just pointing out that in 1941 the US was not a major military power and had a history of isolationism.

They are different, but it matters. That's why the US won't allow the media to show dead US solder's returning to the US. And that is just a picture of a coffin. A large part of the public opinion about the Vietnam war was do to the fact that the news did show the US bombing and burning villages. Footage of carnage and piles of returning body bags. The US does not allow any of that now.

And Fox News, the mouth piece of the Republican party, is glad to show you the gruesome truth of ISIS, but supports "our troops" and would never fight to show us the reality of our "liberation" of Iraq, or the children and families killed by constant drone attacks in Pakistan. I'm not even arguing against the drone attacks, I'm just saying that images matter and that's why we aren't allowed to see them when they reflect poorly on the US.

That literally kills me.

Yes, violence is justified in fighting ISIS. By the people and governments where ISIS is operating. Which is NOT North America, last time I checked. We should let the Middle Eastern countries fight their own civil wars, rather than getting involved and muddying the waters with our (I'm a US citizen) "national interests." Once we get involved politics, oil and money trump the humanitarian and democratic aspirations. We need to admit that we are bad at "liberating."

This is not true. You can't skip Hulu Plus ads, and youtube now has some ads that can't be skipped (no doubt they get more money for those.) At least you couldn't when I tried Hulu Plus, so I cancelled it. If I am paying money, I don't want ads and I don't want to have to skip ads. I am willing to pay more to have an ad free experience. I am tired of being the product that is sold to advertisers, I want to be the customer that gets what he pays for.

In what way are America's moral and ethical values falling? What was the hay day of America's moral and ethical values? Was it when African-Americans could not vote? Or when women couldn't vote? Or when homosexuals were thrown in jail? Or when inter-racial marriage was illegal? Or when the Native Americans where slaughtered and kicked off their land? Or when women couldn't own property and African-Americans were property? Or when lynchings were common? Maybe it was back when children worked in sweat shops, was that the epitome of ethics and morality? Or was it when we rounded up all the Japanese, confiscated their property and imprisoned them in internment camps.

There are big issues that need addressing, and there are many struggles ahead. There will always be struggles and problems. But I will take a world where, at least by law, all adults are: not property, allowed to own property, allowed to vote, and can love and live with any other consenting adult then the "good old days."

Why do people pine for the "glory days" that never were?

Those that can do. Those that can't, teach. Those that can't do or teach, become critics. Performing is an art, no matter how bitter you are.

I know it's cool to hate Apple, but GTAT is who made the promise they couldn't keep and Apple is the company that got left holding the bag.