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Comment by Analemma_ | Hacker News Reader

Are all those landings in the same spot? I was under the impression that the LZ can be all over the place depending on the weight/trajectory of the payload.

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Heavy payloads and ones destined for geostationary orbit currently need a drone ship, whereas lighter payloads or ones for low orbit can return to the launch site.

I'm not sure how much the drone ship launches deviate in a north/south or east/west direction for ship landings (couldn't find a map). The boosters have a fairly significant ability to maneuver, and a fixed platform may offer enough benefits to slightly limit payload sizes. Falcon Heavy will also help there.

Eventually, BFR will have enough performance margin to return to the launch site on all missions. I suspect SpaceX wouldn't want to invest in any fixed oceanic infrastructure when their next generation system wouldn't have any use for it.

Their BFR video showed sea platforms near cities being used for launch/landing for Earth-to-Earth transit, though.

I believe that is more because most cities won't want a really loud rocket launching/landing nearby.

BFR will have enough performance margin to RTL for missions with F9 sized payloads. But eventually customers will want heavier payloads, and that will mean no RTL.

There’s no provision for BFR boosters to land anywhere but the launch site. They’re looking at 150 tons to orbit that way. If a customer wants more, they can put it up on two flights.

The drone ship location varies quite a bit, depending on payload, destination orbit, weather, etc.

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