Elon Musk of SpaceX can now proudly say that he owns three epic rockets that launched from Earth and returned back, all in one piece.

This photograph is evidence how this trio of Falcon 9 rockets have successfully launched and completed each of their prospective missions, and landed back on Earth, as they are all now housed under the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, for an upcoming space mission, only one of them will fly back into lower Earth orbit.

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The first vertical rocket landing of SpaceX was achieved last December, making this a historical feat as it launched a communications satellite into orbit and completed an almost perfect landing on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The second rocket landing came about a few months after, where it landed successfully upright and landed on a floating droneship across the Atlantic ocean in April, resulting form several failed landings. When launching satellites into orbit, this would require higher velocities to place the satellite into orbit, this is in turn would require more fuel to achieve this kind of rocket power and landing on a robotic barge at sea means saving more fuel for a vertical landing.

Now, earlier this month, SpaceX successfully landed its third rocket at sea, after Musk predicted that it had unlikely odds for a complete vertical landing due to its high speed velocities, achieving the highest temperatures upon re-entry in the Earth's atmosphere.

According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the private space company is now planning to keep the first Falcon 9 rocket of December since this is the first rocket that flew back and returned to Earth. Musk also reveals in a tweet that the most recent rocket landing although, the most streamlined landing, sustained maximum damage due to high entry velocity. He also says that this rocket will serve as a life leader for ground tests, for further confirmation that others are in good condition.  

Why land rockets back to Earth instead of discarding them and burning up in the planet's atmosphere? Musk believes that the future of long term space travel lies in reusable rockets, especially for commercial space missions, to slash expensive launch costs and provide more access to space travel and ultimately, to bring humans to Mars.

TagsSpaceX, falcon 9 rockets, successful rocket landing spacex, Elon Musk, reusable rockets