[gozur88]

The problem isn't that it landed hard, it's that it had to slow down very quickly. That's going to be the case for any GTO launch, including today's flight.

From what I understand there was heat damage around the engines.

[eganist]

Thanks for the clarification. I'd read that elsewhere but couldn't ID a source in time. Where've you seen that?

The good news there is that it might mean the rocket can be rehabilitated if needed since structural damage would be less likely.

[gozur88]

Nothing official. This is based on comments (at Ars, I think) from people who studied the pictures closely.

According to the latest Musk tweets today's rocket was actually somewhat damaged in the landing - the scrificial "crush core" was, well, crushed.