/sci/ - Science & Math

>>12054307
Too complicated, and no helicopter has ever been built to lift that much weight. You can simply use airbrakes and ballutes, but you'll probably have to settle for your vehicle ending up in the ocean because retropropulsion is what gives you the fine control to land right ontop of the target.
It's true that boats can catch the parachuting fairing segments from Falcon, but a parachuting fairing is not the same scale of problem as a parachuting rocket stage.

Basically, there are other ways, but the reason SpaceX and pretty much everybody else who's considering reuse chose retropropulsion is because it's the best anybody's been able to think of.