Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX. It is the world’s very first orbital-class reusable rocket. This reusability allows SpaceX to offer much lower-cost options to companies wanting to gain access to space.
The Falcon 9 rocket stands at 229.6 feet tall and has a mass of 1.2 million pounds. Its first stage is powered by nine Merlin engines that generate 1.3 million pounds of thrust at sea level, rising to 1.5 million pounds of thrust once the rocket reaches the vacuum of space.
Falcon 9 can carry payloads of up to 50,300 pounds to low-Earth orbit and payloads of up to 18,300 pounds to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). At the time of writing this (1/10/2021), 103 Falcon 9 launches have occurred.
