Landing Zones

Landing zones are pads designed for the return of the Falcon 1st stage boosters

As of Jan 2017 there are two active Landing Zones

Vandenburg Air-force Base in California at SLC-4W

Cape Canaveral, Florida at Launch Complex 13 (LC13)

21st December 2015 saw the First successful landing of a F9 1st stage onto dry land on LZ1 at Cape Canaveral

Both pads currently support the return of one Falcon 1st stage booster referred to as a "stick".

LZ1 at Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 13 will be shortly upgraded to support all 3 sticks of the upcoming Falcon Heavy Rocket.

As of 19 February 2017 the work to build these two extra pads has been approved but construction is still on hold due to the Launch Pad 39A construction ready for testing the Dragon 2 missions and also the refurbishment of Pad 40 since the explosion of September 2016.

LZ1 at LC13 on 19th February 2017 landing (only one landing pad built)

The target is to get the other two landing pad built for summer 2017 ready for a possible first test of the Falcon Heavy this year.

Boca Chica Beach Landing Zones

There are plans to have a similar Landing Zone at SpaceX's third launch site at Boca Chica Beach in South Texas before 2020.