Haha. Certainly doesn't sound good. It's due to the distance the rocket must travel to release payload. The previous mission was to low earth orbit (about 2K kilometers), while this morning's satellite deployment was to geosynchronous transfer orbit (around 36K kilometers). So it is coming back faster as it was traveling much faster to reach its destination, and has less remaining fuel for necessary deceleration. The recovery was impressive.
You guys are freakin' hilarious. But I assume coming faster means saving fuel on retrieval? Is that correct?
The speed is simply a result of the rocket going into a higher orbit and having to fall a much greater distance back to Earth. Rockets from Low Earth Orbit launches will always come back slower than ones from a Geosynchronous Orbit launch.
I'm not sure. As I understand it the rocket burns more fuel in getting to the higher altitude. It also has to travel much faster to get there, so lots of fuel. That leaves less fuel than rockets returning from LEO, yet more fuel is needed for deceleration (I read GTO returns require 3x the deceleration of LEOs). It sounds like less fuel all around with GTO missions.
It really is a case of having to to a whole lot more (deceleration) with a whole let less (fuel). Degree of difficulty is much, much higher. It's really impressive what they've been able to do in just a few years.
I never have problems recovering after I've released my payload. Just ask all of your 18yo+ female relatives.
I really don't understand the insurance business. So there are people, who will give money to other people, if something goes wrong, with a thing that is basically meant to explode in harmony?
