According to Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s vice president of mission assurance, the next launch scheduled for May will also try for a water recovery. The next step, if crews are unable to recover the rocket from Friday’s launch, is to return a first stage to a touchdown on land and see what might be necessary to prepare it for another flight.
Musk hopes SpaceX can recover a Falcon 9 booster this year and fly a used first stage for the first time in 2015. SpaceX plans to clad the rocket’s single-engine upper stage with a heat shield with an eye toward reusing it as well. The company has not disclosed a timetable for a potential recovery of the second stage.
"We don’t have to just recover it," Musk said. "We have to show that it can be reflown quickly and easily, where the only thing you [have to do] is reload propellant."
The unfortunate thing with the space shuttle was originally the design of the shuttle was, I think, fairly well-suited for good reuse, but then the requirements changed and that made it very difficult to reuse efficiently," Musk said. "As long as we’re able to hold to our requirements, I think we’ll be able to achieve rapid and essentially complete reuse."