Why might a reusable booster be unable to land on a land pad even if it has sufficient range to reach the launch site?
Answer
The required delta-v for the mission might leave insufficient reserve fuel for the necessary boost-back and landing burns
Engineers calculate a propellant budget; if the mission profile demands high performance, the reserves left for the complex sequence of return burns (boost-back and landing) might be depleted, forcing an ocean jettison.
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