Keep in mind, splashing the booster down in the ocean almost always results in rapid unscheduled disassembly (explosion) of the booster. It lands upright but has no ability to stay upright on its own, so usually makes a soft water landing and then immediately tips over. The shock of the side of the booster hitting the water usually ruptures one or more pressure vessels, resulting in a nice fireball and destruction of the vehicle.
Even the Falcon 9 when it lands "at sea" is actually landing on a barge that is able to keep it upright (usually) and out of the water, but any booster vehicle that SpaceX (or anyone) launches that does a soft water landing is a write-off. The only real exception to this is return capsules with astronauts in them which are explicitly designed to land in the water and deploy buoys to keep themselves afloat while they wait for the Coast Guard to come pick them, and the capsule (which is a one-time-use component) up.
> The only real exception to this is return capsules with astronauts in them which are explicitly designed to land in the water and deploy buoys to keep themselves afloat while they wait for the Coast Guard to come pick them, and the capsule (which is a one-time-use component) up.
With SpaceX Dragon (both crew and cargo variants), the capsule is designed to be reusable, so it is no longer a “one-time-use” component. The same is true of Boeing Starliner and NASA/LockheedMartin Orion. “One-time-use” was true of previous ocean-landing capsules, such as Apollo’s Command Module, with the sole exception of the Jan 1965 Gemini 2 uncrewed testflight’s capsule, which was reused for another uncrewed testflight the next year, as part of USAF’s Manned Orbital Laboratory program (which was cancelled in 1969)
Of course, reuse after a spaceflight and ocean landing requires significant refurbishment. Also, both Starliner and Orion are only partially reusable, since both (like Apollo) have a service module designed to burn up on re-entry. Dragon likewise has a trunk, but Dragon’s trunk contains fewer spacecraft systems than Starliner or Orion’s service modules, making it more reusable overall.
The space shuttle solid rocket boosters were also recovered after a sea landing and reused, but solid rockets are more like simple big metal tubes than liquid fueled rockets are
Even the Falcon 9 when it lands "at sea" is actually landing on a barge that is able to keep it upright (usually) and out of the water, but any booster vehicle that SpaceX (or anyone) launches that does a soft water landing is a write-off. The only real exception to this is return capsules with astronauts in them which are explicitly designed to land in the water and deploy buoys to keep themselves afloat while they wait for the Coast Guard to come pick them, and the capsule (which is a one-time-use component) up.