https://youtu.be/hdS4azOaF2M?si=MzFLf5LdnbA7VJMD
SpaceX is retrieving boosters and reusing them, pretty clear how they do that. But how will main engines be reusable? How will they retrieve them?
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The main engines are the nine engines that is attached to the first stage that they land. The secondary engine is on the upper stage which they do not recover. So the main engines are recovered from the landed first stage and then refurbished to be reused. Your confusion might come from other rocket designs such as the Space Shuttle or the Delta V which use booster rockets. The main engines still light up at liftoff but do not provide most of the thrust until the boosters are out of fuel. So with these rockets the main engine stay attached until they reach orbit, or at least almost to orbit. But this is not how the SpaceX rockets are configured.
On the Space Shuttle Orbiter the main engines ( three Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25) simply went with the payload into orbit, with most of the craft (the main fuel tank and solid rocket boosters) discarded, but those were designed to be the cheapest parts of the craft.
The engines were serviced and prepared after every flight and operated very well during the space shuttle program.
I think you mean how **do** reusable rocket engines work.
As I understand it, SpaceX has over-engineered the hard to get to parts of the engines so they don’t need to be fully refurbished after every trip.
After a first stage has returned to earth it’s tested and if no issues are found is made ready for its next mission.
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