Falcon 9 is SpaceX's two-stage, reusable orbital rocket and the most-launched U.S. orbital vehicle in history, with a landed and reflown first-stage booster as its defining innovation.
Falcon 9
Falcon 9 is SpaceX's two-stage, reusable orbital rocket and the most-launched U.S. orbital vehicle in history, with a landed and reflown first-stage booster as its defining innovation.
Description
Falcon 9 is a two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured by SpaceX for reliable, cost-efficient transport of satellites, cargo, and crew to orbit. Its first stage is powered by nine Merlin 1D engines and is designed to survive re-entry and land vertically, either on a droneship at sea or on a landing pad, after which it can be refurbished and reflown, dramatically reducing launch costs versus expendable rockets. The second stage uses a single vacuum-optimized Merlin engine to deliver payloads to their final orbit, restarting to place multiple payloads into different orbits. Falcon 9 serves a broad market including commercial satellite operators, NASA cargo and crew resupply to the ISS via Dragon, national security payloads, and SpaceX's own Starlink constellation deployment. Since its 2010 debut, Falcon 9 (now in its Block 5 iteration) has flown over 650 missions with a success rate above 99%, become the world's most-flown active orbital rocket, and set booster reuse records with individual first stages flying more than 30 times.
Specifications
| Height | 69.8 m, Full Thrust/Block 5 version |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 3.7 m |
| Mass at liftoff | ~549,000 kg |
| Stages | 2 (reusable first stage, expendable second stage) |
| First stage engines | 9x Merlin 1D |
| First stage thrust | 7,607 kN sea level / 8,227 kN vacuum |
| Second stage engine | 1x Merlin 1D Vacuum |
| Payload to LEO | 22,800 kg expended; ~17,500 kg with droneship recovery |
| Payload to GTO | 8,300 kg expended; ~5,500 kg with droneship recovery |
| Reusability | First stage booster designed for propulsive vertical landing and reflight; individual boosters have flown as many as 35+ missions |
| Fairing diameter | 5.2 m |
| Flight heritage (mid-2026) | ~672 total Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy family launches, 669 full successes, ~99.5%+ success rate; over 598 successful booster landings |