[chrisseaton]

Do you mean the Falcon rockets? The whole point of them is that they aren't ballistic missiles, isn't it?

[Quai]

I guess it depends on how strictly you define a ballistic missile. I would think most warheads have some sort of terminal guidance. The only difference is that Falcon use the engines mainly to shed speed so that it does not burn up during entry, and dont destroy the barge on "impact".

But, yeah, when they do boost-back to the Cape, the analogy breaks down even more.