Have not seen this mentioned in other threads and thought worth mentioning for all the space geeks here. On Nov 24th, 2015, Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin rocket-company successfully went to 100.5km above Earth (technically ‘space’) with a reusable rocket, capsule included on top, and landed it vertically within ~1.5 meters of center of launchpad (!). Nowhere near the level of complexity/energy-levels of SpaceX/Musk’s orbital rocket vertical-landing attempts, of course, but very similar of concept, I guess.
It is really neat just how much side-side movement of the exhaust gases can be seen as it slows and stabilizes, especially in the couple of seconds before it slows descent rate waaaaaay down seemingly 50-100’ above ground - then a few seconds before touchdown, it hovers and scooches over a bit to hit closer to ‘bullseye’ territory. The rocket seemed to have absolute control of everything it needed to do. The capsule itself was jettisoned around 6km from ground on way down, and is landed under parachutes.
I know there is still lots more testing/flights before routine commercial and/or crew-rated usages, but dangit, that looked awesome and sure is a large stepping stone to cheaper suborbital access.* Congrats to Blue Origin!* And read Plaitt’s commentary, for sure - worthwhile hearing about the tweets that Musk and Bezos exchanged after the landing.
I anxiously await the next Falcon 9’s vertical-landing attempt and hope the wrinkles get worked out of that big orbital-scale one.