Falcon 9 Full Thrust

Falcon 9 Full Thrust
	Falcon 9 Flight 20, the first flight of the Full Thrust, which successfully deployed 11 Orbcomm satellites and achieved the first-ever vertical landing of an orbital rocket's first stage
Function	Medium-lift launch vehicle
Manufacturer	SpaceX
Country of origin	United States
Cost per launch	Expended: US$62 million; Reusable: US$50 million;
Size
Height	69.8 m (229 ft) with payload fairing 65.7 m (216 ft) with Crew Dragon 63.7 m (209 ft) with Dragon
Diameter	3.7 m (12 ft)
Mass	549,000 kg (1,210,000 lb)
Stages	2
Capacity
Payload to LEO
Orbital inclination	28.5°
Mass	Expended: 22,800 kg (50,300 lb); Reusable: 18,500 kg (40,800 lb);
Payload to GTO
Orbital inclination	27°
Mass	Expended: 8,300 kg (18,300 lb); Reusable: 7,000 kg (15,000 lb);
Payload to TMI
Mass	4,020 kg (8,860 lb)
Associated rockets
Family	Falcon 9
Based on	Falcon 9 v1.1
Derivative work	Falcon 9 Block 5; Falcon Heavy
Comparable	Ariane 5; Atlas V; H-IIB; Long March 3B/E; Proton-M;
Launch history
Status	Active
Launch sites	Cape Canaveral, SLC-40; Kennedy, LC-39A; Vandenberg, SLC-4;
Total launches	472
Success(es)	471
Failure(s)	1
Notable outcome(s)	1 (AMOS-6 pre-flight destruction)
Landings	448 / 456 attempts
First flight	22 December 2015 (Orbcomm-OG2-2)
Last flight	Active
Carries passengers or cargo	Dragon; Boeing X-37; Iridium NEXT; TESS; Zuma; Starlink;
First stage
Height	41.2 m (135 ft)
Diameter	3.7 m (12 ft)
Powered by	9 × Merlin 1D
Maximum thrust	SL: 7,607 kN (1,710,000 lbf); vac: 8,227 kN (1,850,000 lbf);
Specific impulse	SL: 282 s (2.77 km/s); vac: 311 s (3.05 km/s);
Burn time	162 seconds
Propellant	LOX / RP-1
Second stage
Height	13.8 m (45 ft)
Diameter	3.7 m (12 ft)
Powered by	1 × Merlin 1D Vacuum
Maximum thrust	934 kN (210,000 lbf)
Specific impulse	348 s (3.41 km/s)
Burn time	397 seconds
Propellant	LOX / RP-1

Falcon 9 Full Thrust (also known as Falcon 9 v1.2) is a partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle when reused and Heavy-lift launch vehicle when expended designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. It is the third major version of the Falcon 9 family, designed starting in 2014, with its first launch operations in December 2015. It was later refined into the Block 4 and Block 5. As of June 18, 2025, all variants of the Falcon 9 Full Thrust (including Block 4 and 5) had performed 472 launches with only one failure: Starlink Group 9-3.

On December 22, 2015, the Full Thrust version of the Falcon 9 family was the first launch vehicle on an orbital trajectory to successfully vertically land a first stage. The landing followed a technology development program conducted from 2013 to 2015. Some of the required technology advances, such as landing legs, were pioneered on the Falcon 9 v1.1 version, but that version never landed intact. Starting in 2017, previously flown first-stage boosters were reused to launch new payloads into orbit. This quickly became routine, in 2018 and in 2019 more than half of all Falcon 9 flights reused a booster. In 2020 the fraction of reused boosters increased to 81%.

Falcon 9 Full Thrust is a substantial upgrade over the previous Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket, which flew its last mission in January 2016. With uprated first- and second-stage engines, a larger second-stage propellant tank, and propellant densification, the vehicle can carry substantial payloads to geostationary orbit and perform a propulsive landing for recovery.