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"After separating in orbit, the two stages of the rocket would come back to Earth and land at the launch pad."

They've always intended both the boosters and the second stage to return to the launch site.

Recent statements indicate that they've given up on second stage recovery for the F9. Just too hard given current margins. That'll be in some future architecture.

It's just the least valuable thing to try to recover. Pick your battles and all that. While a recoverable payload yes its much harder but bringing something back which is valable on top of the spacecraft.

Getting S2 backs seems like 90% of the problems plus some others and not much of a payoff.

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