Family: Falcon · SpaceX
Falcon 9
Launch statistics
- 670
- Launches (as of July 27, 2026)
- 60
- Successes
- 2
- Failures
- 96.8 %
- Success rate
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The Falcon 9 is the launcher that rewrote the rules of space access: a two-stage rocket whose first stage comes back, lands upright and flies again — something the industry considered economically impossible until SpaceX made it routine. It was born from NASA's commercial programme of the mid-2000s, when the agency chose to buy transportation from private companies rather than design its own rockets. SpaceX, coming off the small Falcon 1, answered with a nine-engine launcher that debuted on 4 June 2010. On 21 December 2015 it achieved the unprecedented: setting an orbital rocket's first stage back down on solid ground. Reuse has not been an experiment since — with drone-ship landings at sea, boosters accumulating dozens of flights and a launch cadence without precedent in history. Today the Falcon 9 is the workhorse of Western space access: it carries astronauts to the space station, deploys the Starlink constellation and launches more times per year than all its competitors combined, at a price per kilogram that redefined the market.
History
Falcon 9 debuted on June 4, 2010 and transformed access to space: in December 2015 it achieved the first propulsive landing of an orbital first stage, and reuse has been the family norm ever since.
Origin
SpaceX announced the Falcon 9 in 2005, before it had even reached orbit with its small Falcon 1. The decisive push came from NASA: the commercial cargo programme —the 2006 COTS contract and the resupply services contracted in 2008— funded both the rocket and the Dragon capsule, in an agency bet on buying transportation rather than owning rockets. The design clustered nine Merlin engines in the first stage with redundancy as its philosophy: the rocket can lose an engine and still complete the mission.
Evolution
From the original 2010 Falcon 9 came the longer, more powerful v1.1 in 2013 and the Full Thrust with sub-chilled propellants in 2015. The iteration culminated in 2018 with Block 5, the definitive version, optimised to reuse each stage again and again with minimal refurbishment. Every version was a deliberate step toward the same goal: making it abnormal to throw the rocket away after each flight.
Conquering reuse
After years of tests —and spectacular failures on the barge— a first stage landed at Cape Canaveral minutes after liftoff on 21 December 2015. In 2017 a flown stage flew again for the first time. What followed was a quiet accumulation of records: routine landings on the ocean drone ships, individual boosters passing dozens of flights, and the price of reaching orbit falling accordingly.
The workhorse
In 2020 the Falcon 9 returned crewed flight to the United States with Crew Dragon, and it has carried astronauts to the space station regularly ever since. The bulk of its cadence comes from Starlink, SpaceX's constellation, which has turned orbital launch into an almost daily operation: the family passed 400 and then 500 flights within a handful of years, unprecedented for an orbital launcher.
Legacy
The Falcon 9 proved that propulsive reuse works technically and commercially, and forced the whole industry —from Europe to China— to redesign its launchers around that idea. Few machines have moved the frontier of what is possible in space as far since the Shuttle.
Launch timeline
| Date | Launch site | Outcome | Payload |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 25, 2026, 9:33 AM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Aug 22, 2026, 7:25 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Aug 21, 2026, 3:14 PM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Aug 19, 2026, 4:01 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Aug 16, 2026, 1:50 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | USSF-366 is a classified mission for the United States Space Force. It is possibly a batch of classified LEO satellites for a US government entity based on SpaceX’s Starshield satellite bus, based on locations of rocket stage drop zones being exact fits with previous Starlink Group 15 launches. |
| Aug 16, 2026, 1:12 AM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | The Globalstar global mobile communications network offers global, digital real time voice, data and fax services via its Low Earth Orbit satellite constellation. The constellation operates in a 1410 km orbit inclined at 52 degrees. In early 2022, Globalstar contracted with MDA for the construction of 17 new 2nd generation refresh satellites to replenish the existing constellation. Rocket Lab is sub-contracted to build the satellites' buses and the launch dispensers. |
| Aug 12, 2026, 4:46 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Aug 11, 2026, 3:58 PM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Aug 8, 2026, 4:35 PM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Aug 5, 2026, 7:49 AM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | AST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, required to achieve 24/7 continuous cellular broadband service coverage in the United States, with beams designed to support a capacity of up to 40 MHz, enabling peak data transmission speeds up to 120 Mbps, supporting voice, full data and video applications. The Block 2 BlueBirds, featuring as large as 2400 square foot communications arrays, will be the largest satellites ever commercially deployed in Low Earth orbit once launched. This launch will feature 3 satellites. |
| Aug 4, 2026, 5:05 PM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Aug 1, 2026, 3:08 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jul 30, 2026, 7:10 AM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | Classified payload for the US National Reconnaissance Office. |
| Jul 25, 2026, 3:51 PM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jul 21, 2026, 9:15 PM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | The Northrop Grumman/SpaceLogistics MRV-1 is a mission extension payload including a mission robotic vehicle (MRV) and multiple mission extension pods (MEPs). The MRV is designed to attach up to 30 MEPs (Mission Extension Pods) to various satellites in GEO over the course of its life, and the MEPs (Mission Extension Pods) are 400 kg spacecraft designed to be captured by the MRV and then attached to a customer's satellite. A single MEP can extend a 2000 kg satellite's service life by up to 6 years. For this mission, 2 of the MEP's will service satellites for Intelsat, while the third will service a satellite for Optus. |
| Jul 21, 2026, 2:49 PM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jul 16, 2026, 8:32 PM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | Tranche 1 Transport Layer E is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites. The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance. This launch carries 21 satellites manufactured by York Space Systems. |
| Jul 14, 2026, 9:10 AM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jul 14, 2026, 1:28 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jul 11, 2026, 3:01 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jul 9, 2026, 9:25 AM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jul 7, 2026, 7:12 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | Dedicated rideshare flight to a sun-synchronous orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers. |
| Jul 5, 2026, 10:50 AM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. The Falcon 9 1st stage carries 2 customer payload from Besxar Space Industries for testing their Fabships pilot reusable semiconductor wafers manufacturing pods in launch and re-entry environments. |
| Jul 2, 2026, 2:58 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jun 29, 2026, 2:25 AM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | SXM-11 is the 12th high-powered, digital, audio radio satellite built by Lanteris Space (ex-Maxar, Space System/Loral) for SiriusXM. The SXM-11 satellite will be based on the proven IM-1300 (ex-LS-1300)-class platform and built at the company’s manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, California. SXM-11 has a large, mesh, unfurlable reflector almost 10 meters in diameter that allows SiriusXM programming to reach its radios, including those in moving vehicles. |
| Jun 28, 2026, 4:09 PM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jun 25, 2026, 3:30 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jun 23, 2026, 10:53 AM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | Note: Mission profile and payload details are TBD. Demonstration mission for SpaceX’s Project Starfall, which aims to mass-produce reentry capsules designed to autonomously transport valuable customer experiments and other payloads safely back from space to Earth, including for in-orbit manufacturing. Starfall is a cylindrical shaped capsule approximately 0.75 meters tall with a diameter of 3.1 meters, weighing approximately 2100 kilograms, and capable of carrying 1000 kilograms of payload. It is designed to be carried on Starship flights. |
| Jun 21, 2026, 4:39 PM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jun 19, 2026, 8:50 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | Fourteenth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office to provide imaging and other reconnaissance capabilities. |
| Jun 17, 2026, 6:39 AM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | AST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, required to achieve 24/7 continuous cellular broadband service coverage in the United States, with beams designed to support a capacity of up to 40 MHz, enabling peak data transmission speeds up to 120 Mbps, supporting voice, full data and video applications. The Block 2 BlueBirds, featuring as large as 2400 square foot communications arrays, will be the largest satellites ever commercially deployed in Low Earth orbit once launched. This launch will feature 3 satellites. |
| Jun 15, 2026, 3:34 PM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jun 12, 2026, 12:37 PM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jun 11, 2026, 3:05 PM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jun 8, 2026, 10:13 AM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jun 7, 2026, 4:24 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 21 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. 2 US military Starshield satellites are also on board. |
| Jun 4, 2026, 10:26 AM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Jun 3, 2026, 3:40 PM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| May 30, 2026, 3:25 PM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| May 29, 2026, 12:57 PM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| May 26, 2026, 2:50 PM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| May 25, 2026, 11:48 AM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| May 21, 2026, 10:04 AM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| May 20, 2026, 2:46 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| May 15, 2026, 10:05 PM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | 34th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station operated by SpaceX. The flight will be conducted under the second Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. Cargo Dragon 2 brings supplies and payloads, including critical materials to directly support science and research investigations that occur onboard the orbiting laboratory. |
| May 12, 2026, 2:13 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | Thirteenth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office to provide imaging and other reconnaissance capabilities. |
| May 6, 2026, 3:59 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| May 3, 2026, 7:00 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | Ride-share of 45 satellites including: * CAS500-2 (KASA, South Korea) The South Korean CAS500-1 and -2 satellites will image the Earth in pan-chromatic and multi-spectral modes using the AEISS-C (Advanced Earth Imaging Sensor System) payload, with a ground resolution of 0.5 m in panchromatic mode and 2 m in color mode. * Pelican-7, 8 & 9 (Planet Labs) Pelican is a constellation of very high resolution imaging satellites, designed and manufactured by Planet Labs. The commercial constellation will consist of 32 SmallSats with potential for further expansion, and aims to provide improved spatial resolution and response times over Planet’s existing SkySat and Dove constellations. |
| May 1, 2026, 6:06 PM | Space Launch Complex 40 | Success | A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
| Apr 30, 2026, 2:42 AM | Space Launch Complex 4E | Success | A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system. |
Versions
| v1.0 | v1.1 | Full Thrust | Block 4 | Block 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First launch | June 4, 2010 | September 29, 2013 | December 22, 2015 | August 14, 2017 | May 11, 2018 |
| Last launch | March 1, 2013 | January 17, 2016 | February 22, 2018 | June 29, 2018 | — |
| Height | 54.9 m | 68.4 m | 70 m Best value in this row | — | 69.8 m |
| Diameter | 3.7 m Best value in this row | 3.7 m Best value in this row | 3.7 m Best value in this row | 3.7 m Best value in this row | 3.7 m Best value in this row |
| Mass | 333,400 kg | 505,846 kg | 549,000 kg Best value in this row | — | 549,000 kg Best value in this row |
| Liftoff thrust | 4,940 kN | 5,885 kN | 6,800 kN | — | 7,607 kN Best value in this row |
| Stages | 2 Best value in this row | 2 Best value in this row | 2 Best value in this row | 2 Best value in this row | 2 Best value in this row |
| LEO capacity | 10,450 kg | 13,150 kg | 22,800 kg Best value in this row | — | 22,800 kg Best value in this row |
| GTO capacity | 4,540 kg | 4,850 kg | 8,300 kg Best value in this row | — | 8,300 kg Best value in this row |
| Reusable | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Images