Video: Falcon 9 rocket test-fired at pad 39A (members only)

Take a virtual trip from space back to planet Earth with an sped up video clip showing the eye-popping on-board views from the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage booster as it plummeted back to Earth, opened aerodynamic steering fins and fired its engines for a final braking maneuver just before touchdown.

SpaceX is likely to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket set for launch April 30 on a drone ship just off the coast of Cape Canaveral, not at the company’s onshore recovery site as originally planned, after a ground test of the company’s Crew Dragon capsule at the landing pad ended in an explosion Saturday.

SpaceX ignited the engines of its Falcon Heavy at 12:30 p.m. EST (1730 GMT) on Jan. 24 as it prepares for the maiden flight of the three-core rocket.