Think of an arrow being shot from a bow. It goes up, it comes down, right?
The booster for the Falcon-9 is pretty much like an arrow, in that it has ‘feathers.’ These are located at the top of the booster and are called grid fins. When the booster is falling back to earth, these act as feathers, and are technically at the ‘rear’ of the arrow, ok?
SO, the weight of the engines and fuel keep the rocket pointing up and down, with the ‘feathers’ (ie grid fins) at the back of the ‘arrow’ (ie booster).
As it falls, the fins guide the rocket back to the take off point, or to a special barge used to catch the rocket.
The landing legs deploy, the rocket engine fires, and slows the ‘arrow’ to zero speed just as it touches the land or barge.
Voila! A perfect landing, compliments of gravity and physics!
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