Single stage recovery is the simplest form of recovery, and involves deploying a single parachute by means of either motor ejection, a timer, or an altimeter or altimeter/accelerometer.

The advantages of single stage recovery are that there are less things to go wrong due to its simplicity, and it takes the least amount of time to prepare the recovery system.

The disadvantages of single stage recovery are that if the parachute does not deploy, there is no back-up for redundancy, and because the recovery system is generally deployed high, then the rocket can drift a considerable distance under the parachute.