SpaceX has been landing the first stage of its workhorse Falcon 9 booster since 2015, and the sight of the vehicle coming in for an upright touchdown, engines blazing, never gets old.
Most of the landings take place on a droneship waiting in the ocean, though occasionally SpaceX also lands the booster back near the launch site.
Earlier this week, the Elon Musk-led spaceflight company launched and landed a Falcon 9 booster — B1067 — for a record 32nd time, highlighting SpaceX’s ability to reuse its rockets.
But after the engines fall silent and the livestream ends, the booster becomes little more than an odd-shaped piece of cargo bobbing up and down on the waves, ahead of it a mundane voyage back to base.
A new video posted by NASASpaceFlight’s Elisar Priel shows some of the rather unglamorous and very ordinary sea journey of a first-stage Falcon 9 booster, this one the record-breaking B1067.
No, it’s not the most exciting footage, but it offers a behind-the-scenes look at what happens to the rocket once the fireworks end.
After a Falcon 9 booster returns to port, it’s lifted from the droneship and moved to a hangar where SpaceX engineers carefully inspect its structure and engines for wear and tear, as well as any serious damage.
Following the assessment, teams will make any necessary repairs or swap parts out ahead of robust testing for the booster’s next flight.
When the vehicle is ready, SpaceX planners will select a mission for it before integrating a new upper stage for the flight, which could involve anything from the deployment of another batch of Starlink satellites to a crewed mission bound for the space station.
The rocket is then transported back to the launch site, ready to repeat the cycle that begins with another launch and ends with another one of those routine rides home.