From the moment I saw the (failed) attempt to land the spent booster on the barge I thought ‘technical one-upmanship’. All sorts of nifty things are possible with computer controlled servo engines etc, but at the end of the day it’s probably more practical and cost efficient to splash it down with kevlar flotation bags, hook it, and haul it in. An engineer way back told me ‘appropriate tech beats high tech everytime’.
'Ceptin' salt water and precision high-performance rocket engines are incompatible.