Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astrona ...

company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and payload to a certain altitude, after which the second stage lifts the payload to its ultimate destination. The rocket evolved through several versions. V1.0 flew from 2010–2013, V1.1 flew from 2013–2016, while V1.2 Full Thrust first launched in 2015, encompassing the

Block 5 Falcon 9 Block 5 is a partially reusable two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. It is the fifth version of Falcon 9 Full Thrust, powered by SpaceX Merlin engines burning rocket- ...

variant, flying since May 2018. The booster is capable of landing vertically to facilitate reuse. This feat was first achieved on flight 20 in December 2015. Since then, SpaceX has successfully landed boosters over 100 times. Individual boosters have flown as many as 15 flights. Both stages are powered by SpaceX Merlin engines, using cryogenic

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an a ...

and rocket-grade kerosene ( RP-1) as propellants. The heaviest payloads flown to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) were Intelsat 35e carrying , and Telstar 19V with . The former was launched into an advantageous

super-synchronous transfer orbit A geosynchronous transfer orbit or geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is a type of geocentric orbit. Satellites that are destined for geosynchronous (GSO) or geostationary orbit (GEO) are (almost) always put into a GTO as an intermediate step ...

, while the latter went into a lower-energy GTO, with an apogee well below the geostationary altitude. Falcon 9 is human-rated for transporting NASA astronauts to the ISS. Falcon 9 is certified for the National Security Space Launch program and NASA Launch Services Program as "Category 3", which can launch the most expensive, important, and complex NASA missions. The first mission launched on 8 October 2012. As of January 2021, Falcon 9 had the most launches among U.S. rockets. It is the only U.S. rocket certified for transporting humans to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

. It is the only commercial rocket to ever launch humans to orbit. On 24 January 2021, Falcon 9 set a record for the most satellites launched by a single rocket, carrying

143 143 may refer to: *143 (number), a natural number *AD 143, a year of the 2nd century AD *143 BC, a year of the 2nd century BC *143 (EP), ''143'' (EP), a 2013 EP by Tiffany Evans *143 (album), ''143'' (album), a 2015 album by Bars and Melody *143 (2 ...

into orbit.

Development history

Conception and funding

In October 2005, SpaceX announced plans to launch Falcon 9 in the first half of 2007. The initial launch would not occur until 2010. While SpaceX spent its own capital to develop its previous launcher, the Falcon 1, development of the Falcon 9 was accelerated by partial

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

funding and commitments to purchase flights once specific capabilities were demonstrated. Funding started with seed money from the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program in 2006. The contract was structured as a Space Act Agreement (SAA) "to develop and demonstrate commercial orbital transportation service", including the purchase of three demonstration flights. The overall contract award was US$278 million to provide three demonstration launches of Falcon 9 with the

SpaceX Dragon American private space transportation company SpaceX has developed and produced several spacecraft named Dragon. The first family member, now referred to as Dragon 1, flew 23 cargo missions to the ISS between 2010 and 2020 before being retired. ...

cargo spacecraft. Additional milestones were added later, raising the total contract value to US$396 million. In 2008, SpaceX won a

Commercial Resupply Services Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) are a series of flights awarded by NASA for the delivery of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) on commercially operated spacecraft. The first CRS contracts were signed in 2008 and awarde ...

(CRS) contract in

's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to deliver cargo to ISS using Falcon 9/Dragon. Funds would be disbursed only after the demonstration missions were successfully and thoroughly completed. The contract totaled US$1.6 billion for a minimum of 12 missions to ferry supplies to and

from From may refer to: * From, a preposition * From (SQL), computing language keyword * From: (email message header), field showing the sender of an email * FromSoftware, a Japanese video game company * Full range of motion, the travel in a range ...

ISS. In 2011, SpaceX estimated that Falcon 9 v1.0 development costs were on the order of US$300 million. NASA estimated development costs of US$3.6 billion had a traditional

cost-plus contract A cost-plus contract, also termed a cost plus contract, is a contract such that a contractor is paid for all of its allowed expenses, ''plus'' additional payment to allow for a profit. A 2011 NASA report "estimated that it would have cost the agency about US$4 billion to develop a rocket like the Falcon 9 booster based upon NASA's traditional contracting processes" while "a more commercial development" approach might have allowed the agency to pay only US$1.7 billion". In 2014, SpaceX released combined development costs for Falcon 9 and Dragon. NASA provided US$396 million, while SpaceX provided over US$450 million. Congressional testimony by SpaceX in 2017 suggested that the unusual NASA process of "setting only a high-level requirement for cargo transport to the space station hileleaving the details to industry" had allowed SpaceX to complete the task at a substantially lower cost. "According to NASA's own independently verified numbers, SpaceX's development costs of both the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets were estimated at approximately $ 390 million in total."

Development

SpaceX originally intended to follow its Falcon 1 launch vehicle with an intermediate capacity vehicle, Falcon 5. In 2005, SpaceX announced that it was instead proceeding with Falcon 9, a "fully reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle", and had already secured a government customer. Falcon 9 was described as capable of launching approximately to low Earth orbit and was projected to be priced at $27,000,000 USD per flight with a

payload fairing A payload fairing is a nose cone used to protect a spacecraft payload against the impact of dynamic pressure and aerodynamic heating during launch through an atmosphere. An additional function on some flights is to maintain the cleanroom enviro ...

and US$35 million with a fairing. SpaceX also announced a heavy version of Falcon 9 with a payload capacity of approximately . Falcon 9 was intended to support LEO and GTO missions, as well as crew and cargo missions to ISS.

Testing

The original NASA COTS contract called for the first demonstration flight in September 2008, and the completion of all three demonstration missions by September 2009. In February 2008, the date slipped into the first quarter of 2009. According to Musk, complexity and Cape Canaveral regulatory requirements contributed to the delay. The first multi-engine test (two engines firing simultaneously, connected to the first stage) was completed in January 2008. Successive tests led to a 178 second (mission length), nine engine test-fire in November 2008. In October 2009, the first flight-ready all-engine test fire was at its test facility in McGregor, Texas. In November, SpaceX conducted the initial second stage test firing, lasting forty seconds. In January 2010, a 329 second (mission length) orbit-insertion firing of the second stage was conducted at McGregor. The elements of the stack arrived at the launch site for integration at the beginning of February. The flight stack went vertical at Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral, and in March, SpaceX performed a static fire test, where the first stage was fired without launch. The test was aborted at T−2 due to a failure in the high-pressure helium pump. All systems up to the abort performed as expected, and no additional issues needed addressing. A subsequent test on 13 March fired the first-stage engines for 3.5 seconds.

Production

In December 2010, the SpaceX production line manufactured a Falcon 9 (and Dragon spacecraft) every three months. By September 2013, SpaceX's total manufacturing space had increased to nearly , in order to achieve a production rate of 40 rocket cores annually. The factory was producing one Falcon 9 per month as of November 2013. By February 2016 the production rate for Falcon 9 cores had increased to 18 per year, and the number of first stage cores that could be assembled at one time reached six. Since 2018, SpaceX has routinely reused first stages, reducing the demand for new cores. In 2021, SpaceX performed 31 F9 launches, using only two new boosters. It successfully recovered the booster on all but one flight. The Hawthorne factory produces one (expendable) second stage for each launch.

Launch history

Notable flights

* Flight 1, Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit, first flight of Falcon 9 and first test of Dragon * Flight 3,

Dragon C2+ SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 (COTS 2), also known as Dragon C2+, was the second test-flight for SpaceX's uncrewed Cargo Dragon spacecraft. It launched in May 2012 on the third flight of the company's two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The flight ...

, first cargo delivery to the

* Flight 4, SpaceX CRS-1, first operational cargo mission to the ISS, and the first demonstration of the rocket's engine-out capability due to the failure of a first-stage

Merlin Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and le ...

engine * Flight 6, CASSIOPE, first v1.1 rocket, first launch from

Vandenberg AFB Vandenberg Space Force Base , previously Vandenberg Air Force Base, is a United States Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Established in 1941, Vandenberg Space Force Base is a space launch base, launching spacecraft from th ...

, first attempt at propulsive return of the first stage * Flight 7,

SES-8 SES-8 is a geostationary Communications satellite operated by SES S.A. SES-8 was successfully launched on SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 on 3 December 2013, 22:41:00 UTC. It was the first flight of any SpaceX launch vehicle to a supersynchronous t ...

, first launch to

Geosynchronous transfer orbit A geosynchronous transfer orbit or geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is a type of geocentric orbit. Satellites that are destined for geosynchronous (GSO) or geostationary orbit (GEO) are (almost) always put into a GTO as an intermediate step ...

(GTO), first commercial payload (

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Ear ...

) * Flight 9, SpaceX CRS-3, added landing legs, first fully controlled descent and vertical ocean touchdown * Flight 15,

Deep Space Climate Observatory Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR; formerly known as Triana, unofficially known as GoreSat) is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) space weather, space climate, and Earth observation satellite. It was launched by Spac ...

(DSCOVR), first mission passing

escape velocity In celestial mechanics, escape velocity or escape speed is the minimum speed needed for a free, non- propelled object to escape from the gravitational influence of a primary body, thus reaching an infinite distance from it. It is typically ...

to the L1 point * Flight 19,

SpaceX CRS-7 SpaceX CRS-7, also known as SpX-7, was a private American Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station, contracted to NASA, which launched and failed on June 28, 2015. It disintegrated 139 seconds into the flight aft ...

, total loss of mission due to structural failure and helium overpressure in the second stage * Flight 20,

Orbcomm OG-2 Orbcomm is a family of low Earth orbit communications satellites, operated by the United States satellite communications company Orbcomm. , 51 such satellites have orbited Earth, with 50 still continuing to do so. Satellite types Orbcomm-CD ...

, first vertical landing of an orbital-class rocket * Flight 23, SpaceX CRS-8, first landing vertically achieved on an

autonomous spaceport drone ship An autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) is an ocean-going vessel derived from a deck barge, outfitted with station-keeping engines and a large landing platform and is autonomously controlled when on station for a landing. Construction of ...

at sea * AMOS-6, total vehicle and payload loss prior to

static fire Launch vehicle system tests assess the readiness of a launch system to safely reach orbit. Launch vehicles undergo system tests before they launch. A wet dress rehearsal (WDR) and a more extensive static fire tests a fully assembled launch vehicl ...

test (would have been Flight 29) * Flight 30, CRS-10, first launch from LC-39A at the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 196 ...

* Flight 32, SES-10, first reflight of a previously flown orbital class booster ( B1021, previously used for SpaceX CRS-8), first recovery of a fairing. * Flight 41, Boeing X-37B OTV-5, first launch of a

spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes te ...

* Flight 54, Bangabandhu Satellite-1, the first flight of the

version * Flight 58, Telstar 19V, heaviest communications satellite ever delivered to GEO * Flight 69, Crew Dragon Demo-1, first launch of the

Crew Dragon Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed and manufactured by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, primarily for flights to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX has also launched private missions such as In ...

* Flight 72, RADARSAT Constellation, the most valuable commercial payload put into orbit * Flight 81, a

Starlink Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, providing satellite Internet access coverage to 45 countries. It also aims for global mobile phone service after 2023. SpaceX started launching Starlink satellites in 2019. As ...

launch, was a successful flight, but had the first recovery failure of a previously flown and recovered booster * Flight 83, a successful

launch, saw the first failure of a Merlin 1D first-stage engine during ascent, and the second ascent engine failure on the rocket following CRS-1 on flight 4 * Flight 85,

Crew Dragon Demo-2 Crew Dragon Demo-2 (officially Crew Demo-2, SpaceX Demo-2, or Demonstration Mission-2) was the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft, named ''Endeavour'', launched on 30 May 2020 on a Falcon 9 booster, and car ...

, the first crewed launch of the Crew Dragon * Flight 98,

Crew-1 SpaceX Crew-1 (was also known as USCV-1 or simply Crew-1) was the first operational crewed flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the maiden flight of the Crew Dragon ''Resilience'' spacecraft. It was also the second crewed orbital flight ...

, the first crewed operational launch of the Crew Dragon, holding the record for the longest spaceflight by a U.S. crew vehicle * Flight 101, CRS-21, the first launch of the Cargo Dragon 2, an uncrewed variation of the Crew Dragon * Flight 106, Transporter-1, the first dedicated smallsat rideshare launch, set the record of the most satellites launched on a single launch with 143 satellites, surpassing the previous record of 108 satellites held by the November 17, 2018 launch of an

Antares Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius. It has the Bayer designation α Scorpii, which is Latinised to Alpha Scorpii. Often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion", Antares is flanked by σ Scorpii and τ S ...

* Flight 108, a

launch, experienced early shut-down of a first-stage Merlin 1D engine during ascent due to damage, but still delivered the payload to the target orbit * Flight 126,

Inspiration4 Inspiration4 (stylized as Inspirati④n) was a 2021 human spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman. The mission launched the Crew Dragon ''Resilience'' on 16 September 2021 at 00:02:56 UTC from Kennedy ...

, the first orbital spaceflight of an all-private crew. * Flight 129,

DART Dart or DART may refer to: * Dart, the equipment in the game of darts Arts, entertainment and media * Dart (comics), an Image Comics superhero * Dart, a character from ''G.I. Joe'' * Dart, a ''Thomas & Friends'' railway engine character * D ...

, first planetary defenses mission against near-Earth objects. * Flight 134, CRS-24, the 100th successful vertical landing of an orbital-class rocket, on the sixth anniversary of the first landing in 2015. * Flight 172, heaviest confirmed Block 5 payload of 16,700 kg, 54

satellites, one more than recent missions from Cape Canaveral.

Design

F9 is a two-stage, LOX/ RP-1-powered launch vehicle.

Engine

Both stages are equipped with Merlin 1D rocket engines. Each Merlin engine produces of thrust. Every engine uses a

pyrophoric A substance is pyrophoric (from grc-gre, πυροφόρος, , 'fire-bearing') if it ignites spontaneously in air at or below (for gases) or within 5 minutes after coming into contact with air (for liquids and solids). Examples are organolith ...

mixture of

triethylaluminum Triethylaluminium is one of the simplest examples of an organoaluminium compound. Despite its name it has the formula Al2( C2H5)6 (abbreviated as Al2Et6 or TEA), as it exists as a dimer. This colorless liquid is pyrophoric. It is an industrial ...

triethylborane Triethylborane (TEB), also called triethylboron, is an organoborane (a compound with a B–C bond). It is a colorless pyrophoric liquid. Its chemical formula is or , abbreviated . It is soluble in organic solvents tetrahydrofuran and hexane. ...

(TEA-TEB) as an engine igniter. The booster fires nine sea-level adapted versions, while the second stage fires one vacuum adapted version. The booster engines are arranged in what SpaceX calls Octaweb. Falcon 9 can lose two of its engines and still complete the mission. The Merlin 1D engines can vector thrust to adjust trajectory. Each Merlin rocket engine is controlled by three

voting Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect hol ...

computers, each of which has two physical processors that constantly check each other.

Tanks

The propellant tank walls and domes are made from

aluminium–lithium alloy Aluminium–lithium alloys (Al–Li alloys) are a set of alloys of aluminium and lithium, often also including copper and zirconium. Since lithium is the least dense elemental metal, these alloys are significantly less dense than aluminium. Commer ...

. SpaceX uses an all friction-stir welded tank, for its strength and reliability. The second stage tank is a shorter version of the first stage tank. It uses most of the same tooling, material, and manufacturing techniques. The F9 interstage, which connects the upper and lower stages, is a carbon-fibre aluminium-core composite structure that holds reusable separation

collet A collet is a segmented sleeve, band or ''collar''. One of the two radial surfaces of a collet is usually tapered (i.e a truncated cone) and the other is cylindrical. The term ''collet'' commonly refers to a type of chuck that uses collets ...

s and a pneumatic pusher system. The original stage separation system had twelve attachment points, reduced to three for v1.1.

Fairing

F9 uses a

(nose cone) to protect (non-Dragon) satellites during launch. The fairing is long, in diameter, weighs approximately 1900 kg, and is constructed of carbon fiber skin overlaid on an aluminum honeycomb core. SpaceX designed and fabricates fairings in Hawthorne. Testing was completed at NASA's

Plum Brook Station NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a NASA center within the cities of Brook Park and Cleveland between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Rocky River Reservation of Cleveland Metroparks, with a subsidiary fac ...

facility in spring 2013 where the acoustic shock and mechanical vibration of launch, plus

electromagnetic In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of a ...

static discharge conditions, were simulated on a full-size test article in a

vacuum chamber A vacuum chamber is a rigid enclosure from which air and other gases are removed by a vacuum pump. This results in a low-pressure environment within the chamber, commonly referred to as a vacuum. A vacuum environment allows researchers to con ...

Control systems

SpaceX uses multiple redundant

flight computers Flight or flying is the process by which an object moves through a space without contacting any planetary surface, either within an atmosphere (i.e. air flight or aviation) or through the vacuum of outer space (i.e. spaceflight). This c ...

in a fault-tolerant design. The software runs on

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

and is written in C++. For flexibility,

commercial off-the-shelf Commercial off-the-shelf or commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products are packaged or canned (ready-made) hardware or software, which are adapted aftermarket to the needs of the purchasing organization, rather than the commissioning of ...

parts and system-wide ''radiation-tolerant'' design are used instead of rad-hardened parts. Each stage has stage-level flight computers, in addition to the Merlin-specific engine controllers, of the same fault-tolerant triad design to handle stage control functions. Each engine microcontroller CPU runs on a

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple– IBM ...

architecture.

Legs/fins

Boosters that will be deliberately expended do not have legs or fins. Recoverable boosters include four extensible landing legs attached around the base. To control the core's descent through the atmosphere, SpaceX uses grid fins that deploy from the vehicle moments before landing.

Versions

V1.0 flew five successful orbital launches from 2010–2013. The much larger V1.1 made its first flight in September 2013. The demonstration mission carried a small primary payload, the CASSIOPE satellite. Larger payloads followed, starting with the launch of the

GEO

. Both v1.0 and v1.1 used

expendable launch vehicle An expendable launch system (or expendable launch vehicle/ELV) is a launch vehicle that can be launched only once, after which its components are either destroyed during reentry or discarded in space. ELVs typically consist of several rocket s ...

s (ELVs). The Falcon 9 Full Thrust made its first flight in December 2015. The first stage of the Full Thrust version was reusable. The current version, known as

Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon 9 Block 5 is a partially reusable two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. It is the fifth version of Falcon 9 Full Thrust, powered by SpaceX Merlin engines burning rocket-g ...

, made its first flight in May 2018.

V1.0

F9 v1.0 was an expendable launch vehicle developed from 2005–2010. It flew for the first time in 2010. V1.0 made five flights, after which it was retired. The first stage was powered by nine

Merlin 1C Merlin is a family of rocket engines developed by SpaceX for use on its Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles. Merlin engines use RP-1 and liquid oxygen as rocket propellants in a gas-generator power cycle. The Merli ...

engines arranged in a 3 × 3 grid. Each had a sea-level thrust of for a total liftoff thrust of about . The second stage was powered by a single Merlin 1C engine modified for vacuum operation, with an expansion ratio of 117:1 and a nominal burn time of 345 seconds. Gaseous N thrusters were used on the second-stage as a

reaction control system A reaction control system (RCS) is a spacecraft system that uses thrusters to provide attitude control and translation. Alternatively, reaction wheels are used for attitude control. Use of diverted engine thrust to provide stable attitude con ...

(RCS). Early attempts to add a lightweight thermal protection system to the booster stage and parachute recovery were not successful. In 2011, SpaceX began a formal development program for a reusable Falcon 9, initially focusing on the first stage.

V1.1

Launch of Falcon 9 carrying CASSIOPE (130929-F-ET475-012)

V1.1 is 60% heavier with 60% more thrust than v1.0. Its nine (more powerful) Merlin 1D engines were rearranged into an "octagonal" pattern that SpaceX called ''Octaweb''. This is designed to simplify and streamline manufacturing. The fuel tanks were 60% longer, making the rocket more susceptible to

bending In applied mechanics, bending (also known as flexure) characterizes the behavior of a slender structural element subjected to an external load applied perpendicularly to a longitudinal axis of the element. The structural element is assumed to ...

during flight. The v1.1 first stage offered a total sea-level thrust at liftoff of , with the engines burning for a nominal 180 seconds, while stage thrust rises to as the booster climbs out of the atmosphere. The stage separation system was redesigned to reduce the number of attachment points from twelve to three, and the vehicle had upgraded avionics and software. These improvements increased the payload capability from to . SpaceX president

Gwynne Shotwell Gwynne Shotwell ( Rowley; born November 23, 1963) is an American businesswoman and engineer. She is the president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, an American space transportation company, where she is responsible for day-to-day operatio ...

stated the v1.1 had about 30% more payload capacity than published on its price list, with the extra margin reserved for returning stages via powered re-entry. Development testing of the first stage was completed in July 2013. First launch came in September 2013. The second stage igniter propellant lines were later insulated to better support in-space restart following long coast phases for orbital trajectory maneuvers. Four extensible carbon fiber/aluminum

honeycomb A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal prismatic wax cells built by honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen. Beekeepers may remove the entire honeycomb to harvest honey. Honey bees consume about of honey t ...

landing legs were included on later flights where landings were attempted. SpaceX pricing and payload specifications published for v1.1 included about 30% more performance than the published price list indicated; SpaceX reserved the additional performance to perform reusability testing. Many engineering changes to support reusability and recovery of the first stage were made for v1.1^.

V1.2/Full thrust

The v1.2 upgrade, also known as Full Thrust (FT), made major changes. It added cryogenic propellant cooling to increase density allowing 17% higher thrust, improved the stage separation system, stretched the second stage to hold additional propellant, and strengthened struts for holding helium bottles believed to have been involved with the failure of flight 19. It offered a reusable first stage. Plans to reuse the second-stage were abandoned as the weight of a heat shield and other equipment would reduce payload too much. The reusable booster was developed using systems and software tested on the Falcon 9 prototypes. The

Autonomous Flight Safety System In the field of rocketry, range safety may be assured by a system which is intended to protect people and assets on both the rocket range and downrange in cases when a launch vehicle might endanger them. For a rocket deemed to be ''off course'' ...

(AFSS) replaced the ground-based mission flight control personnel and equipment. AFSS offered on-board Positioning, Navigation and Timing sources and decision logic. The benefits of AFSS included increased public safety, reduced reliance on range infrastructure, reduced range spacelift cost, increased schedule predictability and availability, operational flexibility, and launch slot flexibility". FT's capacity allowed SpaceX to choose between increasing payload, decreasing launch price, or both. Its first successful landing came in December 2015 and the first reflight in March 2017. In February 2017, CRS-10 launch was the first operational launch utilizing AFSS. All SpaceX launches after 16 March used AFSS. A 25 June mission carried the second batch of ten Iridium NEXT satellites, for which the aluminium

grid fin Grid fins (or lattice fins) are a type of flight control surface used on rockets and bombs, sometimes in place of more conventional control surfaces, such as planar fins. They were developed in the 1950s by a team led by and used since the 1970 ...

s were replaced by larger

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resista ...

versions, to improve control authority, and heat tolerance during re-entry.

Block 4

In 2017, SpaceX started including incremental changes, internally dubbed Block 4. Initially, only the second stage was modified to Block 4 standards, flying on top of a Block 3 first stage for three missions: NROL-76 and Inmarsat-5 F5 in May 2017, and Intelsat 35e in July 2017. Block 4 was described as a transition between the Full Thrust v1.2 Block 3 and

. It includes incremental engine thrust upgrades leading to Block 5. The maiden flight of the full Block 4 design (first and second stages) was the

SpaceX CRS-12 SpaceX CRS-12, also known as SpX-12, was a Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station launched on 14 August 2017. The mission was contracted by NASA and was flown by SpaceX using a new Dragon capsule. The Falcon 9 ro ...

mission on 14 August.

Block 5

In October 2016, Musk described Block 5 as coming with "a lot of minor refinements that collectively are important, but uprated thrust and improved legs are the most significant". In January 2017, Musk added that Block 5 "significantly improves performance and ease of reusability". The maiden flight took place on 11 May 2018, with the Bangabandhu Satellite-1 satellite. The Block 5 second stage included upgrades to enable it to linger in orbit and reignite its engine three or more times.

Capabilities

Performance

Reliability

As of , Falcon 9 had achieved out of full mission successes (). SpaceX CRS-1 succeeded in its primary mission, but left a secondary payload in a wrong orbit, while

was destroyed in flight. In addition, AMOS-6 disintegrated on the launch pad during fueling for an engine test. Based on the

Lewis point Lewis Point () is a point at the south side of the mouth of Anthony Glacier, on the east coast of Palmer Land, Antarctica. It is marked by rocky exposures on its north side and is surmounted by an ice-covered dome, high. The point was photograph ...

estimate of reliability, the Falcon 9 Full Thrust had become the most reliable orbital launch vehicle then in operation. Block 5 has a success rate of (/). For comparison, the industry benchmark Soyuz series has performed 1880 launches with a success rate of 95.1% (the latest

Soyuz-2 Soyuz-2 (GRAU index 14A14) is a modernized version of the Soviet Soyuz rocket. In its basic form, it is a three-stage launch vehicle for placing payloads into low Earth orbit. Compared to the previous versions of the Soyuz, the first-stage b ...

's success rate is 94%), the Russian Proton series has performed 425 launches with a success rate of 88.7% (the latest

Proton-M The Proton-M, (Протон-М) GRAU index 8K82M or , is an expendable Russian heavy-lift launch vehicle derived from the Soviet-developed Proton. It is built by Khrunichev, and launched from sites 81 and 200 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome i ...

's success rate is 90.1%), the European

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads in ...

has performed 110 launches with a success rate of 95.5%, and Chinese

Long March 3B The Long March 3B (, ''Chang Zheng 3B''), also known as the CZ-3B and LM-3B, is a Chinese orbital launch vehicle. Introduced in 1996, it is launched from Launch Area 2 and 3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan. A three-stage rocke ...

has performed 85 launches with a success rate of 95.3%. F9's launch sequence includes a hold-down feature that allows full engine ignition and systems check before liftoff. After the first-stage engine starts, the launcher is held down and not released for flight until all propulsion and vehicle systems are confirmed to be operating normally. Similar hold-down systems have been used on launch vehicles such as

Saturn V Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with three stages, and powered with liquid fuel. It was flown from 1 ...

and

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

. An automatic safe shut-down and unloading of propellant occur if any abnormal conditions are detected. Prior to the launch date, SpaceX typically completes a test cycle, culminating in a three-and-a-half second first stage engine static firing. F9 has triple-redundant flight computers and

inertial navigation An inertial navigation system (INS) is a navigation device that uses motion sensors ( accelerometers), rotation sensors (gyroscopes) and a computer to continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position, the orientation, and the velocity (d ...

, with a

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

overlay for additional accuracy.

Engine-out capability

Like the

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; ...

, multiple engines allow for mission completion even if one fails. Detailed descriptions of destructive engine failure modes and designed-in engine-out capabilities were made public. SpaceX emphasized that the first stage is designed for "engine-out" capability. CRS-1 in October 2012 was a partial success after engine no. 1 lost pressure at 79 seconds, and then shut down. To compensate for the resulting loss of acceleration, the first stage had to burn 28 seconds longer than planned, and the second stage had to burn an extra 15 seconds. That extra burn time reduced fuel reserves so that the likelihood that there was sufficient fuel to execute the mission dropped from 99% to 95%. Because NASA had purchased the launch and therefore contractually controlled several mission decision points, NASA declined SpaceX's request to restart the second stage and attempt to deliver the secondary payload into the correct orbit. As a result, the secondary payload reentered the atmosphere. On an 18 March 2020 Starlink mission, one of the first stage engines failed 3 seconds before cut-off. The payload was inserted into the correct orbit, but the booster recovery failed. SpaceX stated that the engine had failed due to the ignition of some

isopropyl alcohol Isopropyl alcohol (IUPAC name propan-2-ol and also called isopropanol or 2-propanol) is a colorless, flammable organic compound with a pungent alcoholic odor. As an isopropyl group linked to a hydroxyl group (chemical formula ) it is the simp ...

that was not properly purged after cleaning.

Reusability

SpaceX_Falcon_9_Booster_Firing_Cold_Nitrogen_Thrusters

SpaceX planned from the beginning to make both stages reusable. The first stages of early Falcon flights were equipped with parachutes and were covered with a layer of

ablative In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. ...

cork to allow them to survive

atmospheric re-entry Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the entr ...

. These were defeated by the accompanying aerodynamic stress and heating. The stages were salt-water corrosion-resistant. In late 2011, SpaceX eliminated parachutes in favor of

powered descent Vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) is a form of takeoff and landing for rockets. Multiple VTVL craft have flown. The most widely known and commercially successful VTVL rocket is SpaceX's Falcon 9 first stage. VTVL technologies were deve ...

. The design was complete by February 2012. Powered landings were first flight-tested with the suborbital Grasshopper rocket. Between 2012 and 2013, this low-altitude, low-speed demonstration test vehicle made eight vertical landings, including a 79-second round-trip flight to an altitude of . In March 2013, SpaceX announced that as of the first v1.1 flight, every booster would be equipped for powered descent.

Post-mission flight tests and landing attempts

For Flight 6 in September 2013, after stage separation, the

flight Flight or flying is the process by which an object moves through a space without contacting any planetary surface, either within an atmosphere (i.e. air flight or aviation) or through the vacuum of outer space (i.e. spaceflight). This can b ...

plan called for the first stage to conduct a burn to reduce its reentry velocity, and then a second burn just before reaching the water. Although not a complete success, the stage was able to change direction and make a controlled entry into the atmosphere. During the final landing burn, the RCS thrusters could not overcome an aerodynamically induced spin. The centrifugal force deprived the engine of fuel, leading to early engine shutdown and a hard splashdown. After four more ocean landing tests, the CRS-5 booster attempted a landing on the ASDS floating platform in January 2015. The rocket incorporated (for the first time in an orbital mission)

aerodynamic control surfaces, and successfully guided itself to the ship, before running out of hydraulic fluid and crashing into the platform. A second attempt occurred in April 2015, on CRS-6. After the launch, the

bipropellant The highest specific impulse chemical rockets use liquid propellants (liquid-propellant rockets). They can consist of a single chemical (a monopropellant) or a mix of two chemicals, called bipropellants. Bipropellants can further be divided into ...

valve became stuck, preventing the control system from reacting rapidly enough for a successful landing. The first attempt to land a booster on a ground pad near the launch site occurred on flight 20, in December 2015. The landing was successful and the booster was recovered. This was the first time in history that after launching an orbital mission, a first stage achieved a controlled vertical landing. The first successful booster landing on an ASDS occurred in April 2016 on the drone ship '' Of Course I Still Love You'' during

CRS-8 SpaceX CRS-8, also known as SpX-8, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station (ISS) which was launched on April 8, 2016, at 20:43 UTC. It was the 23rd flight of a Falcon 9 rocket, the tenth flight of a ...

. Sixteen test flights were conducted from 2013 to 2016, six of which achieved a soft landing and booster recovery. Since January 2017, with the exceptions of the centre core from the Falcon Heavy test flight,

Falcon Heavy Falcon Heavy is a partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle that is produced by SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer. The rocket consists of two strap-on boosters made from Falcon 9 first stages, a center core also made from a Falc ...

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

STP-2 The Space Test Program (STP) is the primary provider of spaceflight for the United States Department of Defense (DoD) space science and technology community. STP is managed by a group within the Advanced Systems and Development Directorate, a ...

mission, the Falcon 9 CRS-16 resupply mission and the

-4 and 5 missions, every landing attempt has been successful. The only post-landing loss of a first stage occurred on Falcon Heavy Arabsat-6A after the centre core fell overboard during rough seas on the voyage to land.

Relaunch

The first operational relaunch of a previously flown booster was accomplished in March 2017 with B1021 on the SES-10 mission after

in April 2016. After landing a second time it was retired. In June 2017, booster

B1029 A Falcon 9 first-stage booster is a reusable rocket booster used on the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy orbital launch vehicles manufactured by SpaceX. The manufacture of first-stage booster constitutes about 60% of the launch price of a single expe ...

helped carry BulgariaSat-1 towards GTO after an Iridium NEXT LEO mission in January 2017, again achieving reuse and landing of a recovered booster. The third reuse flight came in November 2018 on the

SSO-A SHERPA is a commercial satellite dispenser developed by Andrews Space, a subsidiary of Spaceflight Industries,

of the

, Space Launch Complex 4E of

Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in Key West, Florida * Vandenberg Sp ...

, and Space Launch Complex 40 at

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the stat ...

. The latter was damaged in the AMOS-6 accident in September 2016, but was operational again by December 2017.

Pricing

At the time of F9's 2010 maiden flight, the price of a v1.0 launch was listed from US$49.9–56 million. The list price increased thereafter, to 54–59.5 million (2012). 56.5 million (v1.1, August 2013), 61.2 million (June 2014), 62 million (Full Thrust, May 2016), to 67 million (2022). Dragon cargo missions to the ISS have an average cost of 133 million under a fixed-price contract with

, including the cost of the spacecraft. The 2013

DSCOVR Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR; formerly known as Triana, unofficially known as GoreSat) is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) space weather, space climate, and Earth observation satellite. It was launched by S ...

mission, launched with Falcon 9 for

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditi ...

(NOAA), cost 97 million. In 2004,

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The ...

stated, "Ultimately, I believe 500 per pound (1100/kg)

f payload delivered to orbit F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. Hist ...

or less is very achievable". At its 2016 launch price with a full LEO payload, Full Thrust launch costs reached . In 2011, Musk estimated that fuel and oxidizer for v1.0 cost about 200,000. The first stage uses of

and of RP-1 fuel, while the second stage uses of liquid oxygen and of RP-1. By 2018, F9's decreased launch costs drew competitors.

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy- ...

began working on

Ariane 6 Ariane 6 is a European expendable launch system currently under development since the early 2010s by ArianeGroup on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA). It is intended to replace the Ariane 5, as part of the Ariane launch vehicle famil ...

United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance (ULA), legally United Launch Alliance, LLC, is an American spacecraft launch service provider that manufactures and operates a number of rocket vehicles that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbits around Earth, ...

(ULA) on

Vulcan Centaur Vulcan Centaur is a two-stage-to-orbit, heavy-lift launch vehicle that is under development by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2014 with an initial flight expected in early 2023. It is principally designed to meet launch demands for th ...

, and

International Launch Services International Launch Services, Inc. (ILS) is a joint venture with exclusive rights to the worldwide sale of commercial Angara and Proton rocket launch services. Proton launches take place at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan while Angara is l ...

(ILS) on

Proton Medium The Proton-M, (Протон-М) GRAU index 8K82M or , is an expendable Russian heavy-lift launch vehicle derived from the Soviet-developed Proton. It is built by Khrunichev, and launched from sites 81 and 200 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Ka ...

. On 26 June 2019, Jonathan Hofeller (SpaceX vice president of commercial sales) said that price discounts given to early customers on mission with reused boosters had become the standard price. In October 2019, Falcon 9's "base price" of 62 million per launch was lowered to 52 million for flights scheduled in 2021 and beyond. On 10 April 2020,

Roscosmos The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

administrator Dmitry Rogozin, said that his outfit was cutting prices by 30%, alleging that SpaceX was price dumping by charging commercial customers 60 million per flight while charging NASA between 1.5 and 4x as much for the same flight. Musk denied the claim and replied that the price difference reflected that the F9s were 80% reusable, while Russian rockets were single use. ULA CEO

Tory Bruno Tory Bruno (born November 3, 1961 as Salvatore Thomas Bruno) is an American aerospace engineer and executive. He has been the CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA) since August 2014. Before ULA, he worked at Lockheed Martin, where he made the trans ...

stated "Our estimate remains around 10 flights as a fleet average to achieve a consistent breakeven point ... and that no one has come anywhere close". However, Elon Musk responded "Payload reduction due to reusability of booster and fairing is <40% for Falcon 9 and recovery and refurb is <10%, so you're roughly even with 2 flights, definitely ahead with 3".

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sh ...

reported in April 2020 that the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army S ...

's launches were costing 95 million due to needed extra security. SpaceX executive Christopher Couluris stated that reusing rockets could bring prices even lower, that it "costs 28 million to launch it, that's with everything".

Secondary payloads

F9 payload services include secondary and tertiary payloads mounted via an EELV Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) ring, the same interstage adapter first used for launching secondary payloads on US DoD missions that use the

Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle National Security Space Launch (NSSL) — formerly Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) from 1994 to 2019 — is a program of the United States Space Force (USSF) intended to assure access to space for United States Department of Defense and o ...

s (EELV)

Atlas V Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Marti ...

and

Delta IV Delta IV is a group of five expendable launch systems in the Delta rocket family introduced in the early 2000s. Originally designed by Boeing's Defense, Space and Security division for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, t ...

. This enables secondary and even tertiary missions with minimal impact to the original mission. In 2011, SpaceX announced pricing for ESPA-compatible payloads.

Historical artifacts and museum Falcon 9s

SpaceX first put a Falcon 9 on public display at their headquarters in

Hawthorne, California Hawthorne is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is part of a seventeen-city region commonly called the South Bay. As of the 2020 US census, Hawthorne had a population of 88, ...

, in 2016. In 2019, SpaceX donated a Falcon 9 to Space Center Houston, in Houston, Texas. It was a booster that flew two missions, "the 11th and 13th supply missions to the

nd wasthe first Falcon 9 rocket NASA agreed to fly a second time".Old Falcon 9 rockets done firing their engines will now inflame imaginations
Ars Technica In 2021, SpaceX donated a Falcon Heavy side booster (B1023) to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Notable payloads

* AMOS-17 * Bangabandhu Satellite-1 *

Beresheet ''Beresheet'' ( he, בְּרֵאשִׁית, ''Bərēšīṯ'', "In the beginning"; Book of Genesis) was a demonstrator of a small robotic lunar lander and lunar probe operated by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries. Its aims included ins ...

lunar lander *

Boeing X-37 The Boeing X-37, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is a reusable robotic spacecraft. It is boosted into space by a launch vehicle, then re-enters Earth's atmosphere and lands as a spaceplane. The X-37 is operated by the United Sta ...

* Crew and Cargo Dragon * CRS-7 *

Double Asteroid Redirection Test Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is a NASA space mission aimed at testing a method of planetary defense against near-Earth objects (NEOs). It was designed to assess how much a spacecraft impact deflects an asteroid through its transf ...

(DART) * EchoStar 23 * GPS IIIA launches * Iridium NEXT constellation * Launches for the US National Reconnaissance Office, NROL * Orbcomm OG2 * RADARSAT Constellation * SES-10 *

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...

launches *

SpaceX Starlink Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, providing satellite Internet access coverage to 45 countries. It also aims for global mobile phone service after 2023. SpaceX started launching Starlink satellites in 2019. As ...

* Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) * Zuma

References

External links

Falcon 9 official page

SAOCOM 1B , Launch and Landing
* Test firing of two Merlin 1C engines connected to Falcon 9 first stage
Movie 1Movie 2
(18 January 2008)
Press release announcing design
(9 September 2005)

(Flight International, 13 September 2005)
SpaceX launches Falcon 9, With A Customer
(Defense Industry Daily, 15 September 2005) {{Rocket families Articles containing video clips SpaceX launch vehicles Partially reusable space launch vehicles Vehicles introduced in 2010