The aerospace company SpaceX just made history by sending an orbital rocket into space and then landing it back on the ground. Here's a GIF of the rocket landing below:

This moment marks a critical milestone that SpaceX has been working toward for years and could pave the way for a new era of spaceflight that runs on reusable rockets, or rockets that can fly more than once.

Eight minutes after lift-off on Monday evening, the first stage of the rocket, also known as the booster, set a course back to SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 by performing what's called a re-entry burn of its engines. The burn slows down the rocket and re-orients it in the direction of the landing site.

Then, within the next two minutes, the first stage performed a second engine burn to slow it down even more for a safe and gentle touch down at Landing Zone 1, which is located south of the launch site. The amazing image below shows how this was done:

Here's a similar shot but from a different angle:

Five years ago, a maneuver like this was unheard of in the spaceflight industry. But SpaceX has achieved an incredible feat by returning the first rocket, capable of sending payloads into orbit, to the ground for reuse.

Here's an amazing shot of the booster, fractions of a second before touch down:

Orbital rockets are the most powerful type of rocket there is because they generate enough speed and power to send payloads into orbit around Earth, hence "orbital." These orbits can take place hundreds to tens of thousands of miles above the planet's surface.

Orbital rockets are key to SpaceX's eventual goal of transporting people to far-away destinations like Mars, and then bringing them back home.

The crowd at SpaceX headquarters went crazy as the rocket touched down. Here's a picture of the rocket standing upright at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral in Florida:

The immediate benefit of reusable rockets is a dramatic decrease in the cost of spaceflight. But the long-term advantage is even more exciting: A fleet of reusable rockets could be used to land on Mars to then launch astronauts off the Martian surface on their way back to Earth.

Another rocket landing was performed last month by Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin. However, the two landings were performed by very different rocket types for different purposes, and therefore, are not comparable.

The next step for SpaceX is to refuel the rocket and become the first aerospace company in history to vertically launch a used rocket back to space. When SpaceX plans to reuse this rocket is unclear.