Recovering stages

[Ketatrypt]

lately I have been seeing people emulate the success of Space-X stage recovery operations, and I am wondering how this is possible. I have tried recovering simple things like droptanks and SRB's but they get destroyed as soon as the main craft gets 20km away.. Only other way I could figure it out is go all the way to orbit, and once the payload is in a stable orbit, I can de-orbit and land the first stage.

So wahts the secret for returning those things? thanks

[Laie]

The secret is putting your spent stage on hold until you have time to deal with it. There's a mod for that:

 

 

[Tex_NL]

I am not saying people are doing this. I just want to point out out how easy it is.
You can fake it!

Launch and record your launch bringing the payload to orbit. Now launch and record a second time but switch to the booster and recover. With some clever editing it will look like it's one and the same flight.
That's how Hollywood does it and it would be ignorant to believe YouTubers do not. You only see what people want you to see.

[JTpopcorn]

Laie got it, FMRS puts ships in hold, and remebes their velocities, so you can fly the satellite to orbit, then go "back in time" and land the launch stage/ carrier plane.

[Snark]

Another option (if you'd prefer to do things in stock) is to build a two-stage to orbit vehicle, such that the first stage burns out when it's somewhere above 23 km (which is the magic 1% atmosphere cutoff point below which unattended ships disappear).  The launch sequence looks like,

1. liftoff
2. first stage burnout while climbing fast, somewhere above 23 km
3. second stage completes the burn to lift Ap to where you want it, a few minutes away
4. if the Ap is coming soon, coast to Ap, do the circularization burn, then switch back to the booster before it falls below 23 km
5. if the Ap is going to be a long time coming, switch back to the booster before 2nd stage reaches Ap, fly it to earth and recover, then switch back to the 2nd stage to do the circularization burn

Just out of curiosity, what's your reason for wanting to recover stages?  Role-playing (i.e. "just 'coz it's cool")?  Or economic, as in you want to get money back for the spent stages?

[Ketatrypt]

Thanks for the tips I didn't know that above 23kms that ships don't dissapear. I will have to try that.

As for the reasoning, its just something to do. I have something like $2.5m so recovering it for the $ isn't really worth it. More for the style points

[Warzouz]

Or you can use a SSTO rocket and recover it. It's even simpler. It's not as mass efficient, but very cash efficient.