Note the reusable part. That sort of tracking is much easier if you don't need to resuse the hardware afterwards.

Anyway, anyone else who wants to be able to compete with SpaceX on price is going to need to start doing this before too long, so we'll see how difficult it is.

> That sort of tracking is much easier if you don't need to resuse the hardware afterwards.

Says who?

Your tracking is either precise or it is not. What you are using the precision for is immaterial in this regard..

>anyone else who wants to be able to compete with SpaceX on price is going to need to start doing this before too long, so we'll see how difficult it is.

Wait a minute. Are you seriously calming that spacex is the only company that have landed a rocket successfully?

Imron said "compete with SpaceX". I don't follow developments real closely, so could easily have missed something. Can you point me to any other company which has landed a rocket after putting a payload in orbit? Because if they aren't deploying payloads, they aren't competing with SpaceX. (Yes, NASA and Bezos have landed rockets, but only straight up & straight down. Nothing close to orbital velocity.)

Note that the Falcon 9 first stage is not travelling at orbital velocity, or even that near it really. At separation time -- when it starts to slow down to re-enter -- "[f]or a reusable Falcon 9, [speed] is around Mach 6, depending on the mission." (Quoting Elon Musk, the SpaceX CEO, on Twitter.)

>Can you point me to any other company which has landed a rocket after putting a payload in orbit? Because if they aren't deploying payloads, they aren't competing with SpaceX.

Alright then. It might be true no one else had done this. but take a look at this, which might explain why no one else is doing it..

[1] https://www.quora.com/Havent-other-space-companies-thought-o...

This thing is powerful enough to put a capsule designed for 7 people into orbit. Not being one of the biggest ever doesn't make it small.