Doubtless there are thousands of space junkies out there like me writing about SpaceX’s game-changing achievement. Almost any positive adjective should be in quotes at this point since they’ve all been used to describe the first-of-a-kind first stage landing of an orbital delivery rocket. (Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin rightfully takes credit for the first suborbital landing of a single-stage tourist rocket, of course.)

But after the chants of “USA! USA!” what comes next?

Musk’s long-term goal with this launch is to make space travel affordable. This all hinges on one key assumption, namely reusability. After his crew removes the apparently intact first stage from the landing pad, they have another first-of-a-kind job to do: inspecting a dedicated first-stage rocket and making it flight-ready once again.

The Space Shuttle orbiters (and to a limited extent, their SRBs) hold the title of first reusable space vehicles, but with SpaceX’s (arguably genius) trade secret rocket designs, it is a stretch to say that SpaceX procedures will mirror NASA procedures. The orbiters conveniently threw away their fuel tanks and housed their engines in comparatively robust frames. The Falcon, even upgraded, is a capitalistically efficient structure of aluminum honeycomb, carbon fiber, and other components.

So will the Falcon fly again? The super-chilled LOx, vertical descent through a rocket-heated column of air, and impact of a powered landing all impose unique stresses on the Falcon (this is by no means an exhaustive list). The engineers in Hawthorne had their work cut out for them in the design phase; it is safe to say that they will put in just as many hours investigating their freshly landed machine.

In all likelihood, some spare parts will be required just as cars, plans, and trains require regular maintenance.

I think Musk’s decision-making will roughly follow the inverse of this (probably apocryphal) story:

Legendary car maker Henry Ford sent one of his engineers out to the junkyard to see which of his car parts were in the best condition after the car itself wore down. The engineer returned with a component in hand, saying “it’s as good as new!” Ford, in his bid for affordable cars, promptly ordered his engineers to cheapen the design of that part.

Rockets are not cars, so if anything Musk will find the most worn-down mission-critical part and have his engineers find a way to make it stronger, lighter, and longer-lasting. Who knows? He’s on track to make history again, one way or another.