How NASA Reused Rocket Boosters Before SpaceX

For 30 years NASA's Space Shuttle reused its rocket boosters, recovering them from the Atlantic Ocean after every flight using a pair of specially built ships that would recover the nosecones, parachutes and then finally the massive boosters using a complicated operation that would ultimately tow them back to port for processing. Over 135 launches they recovered boosters on 133, and the majority of the parts were reused multiple times, indeed, the boosters flying on SLS were recovered via this process. Source: