Being Stored In A Hangar At Cape Canaveral

SpaceX founder Elon Musk says that the Falcon 9 booster that was recovered following last month's launch is "ready to fire again," though the booster will not be re-used by the company.

In an Instagram post on December 31, Musk said "Falcon 9 back in the hangar at Cape Canaveral. No damage found, ready to fire again."

The booster will be static-fired at some point to confirm that it could be flown again, but Musk said after the flight that this particular booster would not return to space. It will be preserved as a kind of museum piece, according to a report from space.com.

During the December 21 teleconference after the successful recovery of the booster, Musk said the company has "quite a big flight manifest, and we should be doing well over a dozen flights next year. So I think, probably sometime next year, we will aim to re-fly one of the rocket boosters."

NASA awarded a $1.6 billion contract to SpaceX for at least 12 more unmanned ISS resupply missions, with the next one scheduled for later this month.

(Images provided by SpaceX)

FMI: www.spacex.com