Impressed how space junk etc fall to Earth and almost always land in the ocean. Not hard when 70% of the Earth surface is covered by water. However what is the level of accuracy? I assume that it is planned to aim for a large body of water and get within an x% threshold?
In 1960s America had spy satellites that dropped canisters with photo film, that were captured mid-air by planes.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite)#Discoverer
Presumably aircraft have an advantage over helicopters in that they fly higher and give you more opportunities for capture.
http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/1185/genesis-suffers-a-cra... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_(spacecraft)#Recovery_p...
I don't know if the increase in accuracy was due to improvements in trajectory control during reentry, better aerodynamic modelling based on experience of real flights, or other factors. I assume that SpaceX would be pretty confident about their accuracy, but this is only the second flight of a Dragon.
http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20120530
It parachutes down from 10,000 feet, at 16 to 16 feet per second - which means it spends almost 10 minutes at the mercy of the wind (I'm guessing the re-entry thrusters probably don't get used while it's parachuting down?)
That means that even if they can drop it onto the atmosphere accurately, the actual splash-down point can't be determined any more accuracy than they can predict the wind velocity along the parachute path.