How cost effective will the Grasshopper really be?

[rasheed]

Last time i tried to test reusable 1st stage, return to the pad was easy but borked the fuel and wrecked the 1st stage

[Titan Space Agency]

First of all it takes lots of money to find and recover the SRBs of the space shuttle. Second of all, the grasshopper is a demonstrator rocket. If the rocket soft lands with the fuel it was already built to carie you spend less money recovering it than if you had to go to the ocean to recover it. And the rocket can be reused with out having to replace the mettle that may have coroded in the ocean salt water. My 3rd point: it is much cooler this way.

[Kerbface]

Launching in Texas? That's an interesting idea... Would it perhaps be more efficient to launch in Texas and have the first stage land at Cape Carnaveral (or however it's spelled, I always get this wrong)? It would mean you don't have to worry about limiting your gravity turn and perhaps the the stage could coast on it's own momentum longer and require less fuel to land. Or maybe not.

[Nibb31]

No, it's already been explained that the first stage only comes down a few hundred kilometers downrange. Boosting it to Florida from a Texas launch would require more delta-V than bringing it back, plus it would add the cost of ferrying out back to the launch site.