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How long does the descent of the Falcon 9 first stage take?

Space Exploration Asked on February 15, 2021

After separating from the second stage, how long does it take for the Falcon 9 to come back to Earth?
From LEO and from GEO.

Note: this question is similar:
How long does it take to recover the first stage of the Falcon 9?

Yet it’s not clear the % of time taken for descent. How long to descend from GEO?

One Answer

It will vary somewhat mission-to-mission, but it's generally about 6 minutes from separation to first-stage touchdown. It's not very different between LEO and GEO missions, as the first stage only gets to around 1/4 of orbital speed.

Here's the timeline for ANASIS-II, a GEO-bound launch. Stage separation is at T+2:36 and first-stage touchdown is at T+8:31.

A timeline for an LEO-bound Starlink launch has separation at T+2:36 and touchdown at T+8:42.

Correct answer by Russell Borogove on February 15, 2021

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