The engineering required to do this looks insane but can anyone the reasoning for such a massive undertaking?
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There have been two successful ways of reentering from orbit.
Small crew capsules (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Dragon, and soon starliner on the US side, Soyuz and others on the soviet side)
Planes (Space shuttle, X-38, Soviet Buran) that can glide back into the atmosphere.
The problem is that SpaceX is trying to do something that has never been done before – they are trying to build a really big second stage back. You can’t build a capsule that big, and wings and wheels are really really heavy.
So SpaceX is trying something new and creative.
They are building something that will reenter like a capsule – sideways – with “fins” that can control it during he reentry. Then to land, it will flip back upright, relight its engines, and land vertically, the way the Falcon 9 boosters do.
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