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 expended Falcon 9 (and three of them over 80% of the launch price of an expended Falcon Heavy), which led SpaceX to develop a program dedicated to recovery and reuse of these boosters. After multiple attempts, some as early as 2010, at controlling the re-entry of the first stage after its separation from the second stage, the first successful controlled landing of a first stage occurred on December 22, 2015, on the first flight of the Full Thrust version. Since then, Falcon 9 first-stage boosters have been landed and recovered times out of attempts, including synchronized recoveries of the side-boosters of most Falcon Heavy flights.
In total recovered boosters have been refurbished and subsequently flown at least a second time, with a record of launches and landings carried out by a single booster. SpaceX intentionally limited Block 3 and Block 4 boosters to flying only two missions each, but the company indicated in 2018 that they expected the Block 5 versions to achieve at least ten flights, with only minor refurbishment between missions. The ten flight milestone was first achieved by Booster B1051 on the Starlink 27 mission in 2021. The twenty flight milestone was first achieved by Booster B1062 on the Starlink Group 6-49 mission in 2024. The thirty flight milestone was first achieved by Booster B1067 on the Starlink Group 10-11 mission in 2025.
All boosters in Block 4 and earlier have been retired, expended, or lost. The last flight of a Block 4 booster was in June 2018. Since then all boosters in the active fleet are Block 5.
Booster names are a B followed by a four-digit number. The first Falcon 9 version, v1.0, had boosters B0001 to B0007. All following boosters were numbered sequentially starting at B1001, the number 1 standing for first-stage booster.
SpaceX attempted parachute of the Falcon 9 v1.0 first stage on flights 1 and 2, however on both attempts the boosters disintegrated on re-entry, and the plans were abandoned in favor of propulsive landings. Boosters B0002 (Grasshopper) and B1002 (F9R Dev1) were modified to make short propulsive hops at test sites to demonstrate landing technologies, and were not used on orbital missions. Three boosters successfully made soft ocean touchdowns on orbital flights but were not recovered.
Falcon 9 Full Thrust (version 1.2 / Block 3) was the first version of the Falcon 9 to successfully land. Changes included a larger fuel tank, uprated engines and supercooled propellant and oxidizer to increase performance. Block 3 and Block 4 are found in this list while the active Block 5 is listed separately. Block 4 was a test version that included new hardware such as titanium grid fins later carried over to the current Block 5. Flights of all Falcon 9 rockets up to Block 4 were limited to 2 flights only, with a total of 14 second flights of these variants. The boosters were either retired or expended after that second launch.
Boosters B1023 and B1025 were originally Falcon 9 boosters which were converted to Falcon Heavy side boosters for the Falcon Heavy test flight.
There are three booster types: Falcon 9 (F9), Falcon Heavy core (FH core) boosters, and Falcon Heavy side (FH side) boosters. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy side boosters are reconfigurable to each other. A Falcon Heavy core booster is manufactured with structural supports for the side boosters and cannot be converted to Falcon Heavy side booster, although it can be converted to a lower performance Falcon 9 core booster. The interstage mounting hardware was changed after B1056. The newer interstage design features fewer pins holding the interstage on, reducing the amount of work needed to convert a Falcon 9 booster to a Falcon Heavy side booster.
Block 5 is the latest iteration of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters. Changes include a stronger heat shield, upgraded engines, new carbon composite sections (landing legs, engine sections, raceways, RCS thrusters and interstage), retractable landing legs, titanium grid fins, and other additions that simplify refurbishment and allow for easier reusability.
Block 5 boosters were initially certified for 10 launches which was increased to 15. A "deep-dive" examination has been performed on Falcon 9 B1058 and B1060 after their 15th flight, and SpaceX certified Falcon 9 boosters for 20 missions. SpaceX has further increased the Falcon re-flight certification to 40 flights per booster, since 20 flights of some boosters are reached.
B1058, first launched on May 30, 2020 (Crew Dragon Demo-2), was the only booster with NASA logos. On September 11, 2022, during a Starlink mission, it became the first to complete fourteen launches and landings to become the fleet leader. With another 5 Starlink missions, B1058 achieved 15, 16, 17, 18 & 19 launches and landings, the first to do so. B1062 had been the first to achieve 20th, 21st, 22nd & 23rd launches and landings of a booster. Guinness World Records holder B1067 is the current fleet leader after completing 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 32nd, and 33rd launch & landings, the first to do so. Amongst all B5 boosters, B1071 holds the record for most spacecraft (1026) launched to orbit, while the record for most spacecraft mass launched to orbit by a single booster is held by B1069 (). B1063 is currently and of all time, the oldest surviving booster in the Falcon 9 fleet.
, SpaceX has put into service a total of 54 new B5 boosters, of which 30 have been destroyed (21 have been expended, six have been lost due to failed landings, and three have been lost during recovery).
This chart displays the turnaround time, in months, between two flights of each booster. As of , the shortest turnaround time was 9 days, 3 hours, 39 minutes and 28 seconds, for the fourth flight of B1088. Boosters that are still likely to be re-used (active fleet) are highlighted in bold.
This chart lists how often boosters were flown. It is limited to the Full Thrust versions as previous versions were never recovered intact. The entries for Block 5 include active boosters that can make additional flights in the future. Blocks 1âÂÂ3 made 27 flights with 18 boosters (1.5 flights per booster), Block 4 made 12 flights with 7 boosters (1.7 flights per booster). As of , Block 5 made flights with boosters ( flights per booster) with Falcon 9.
This chart shows how many Block 5 boosters have had N flights, and their status: whether they are still active, expended (i.e. no attempt was made to recover) or destroyed (i.e. recovery of the booster failed).
The F9 booster expended after 1 use was B1054, (GPS III SV01 to MEO, Dec 2018). <br>The three boosters destroyed on their first flight include two FH cores : B1055 (fell off ship, Apr 2019) and B1057 (ADS landing fail, June 2019).
This timeline displays all launches of Falcon 9 boosters starting with the first launch of Full Thrust. Active boosters that are expected to make additional flights in the future are marked with an asterisk. Single flights are marked with vertical lines. A short white gap indicates conversion between Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy side formats. For boosters having performed several launches, colored bars indicate the turnaround time for each flight.
Most Falcon Heavy flights include landing of two side boosters onshore at the same time:
Grasshopper consisted of "a Falcon 9 first-stage tank, a single Merlin-1D engine" with a height of . The booster used for Grasshopper had the serial number 0002.
Grasshopper began flight testing in September 2012 with a brief, three-second hop, followed by a second hop in November 2012 with an 8-second flight that took the testbed approximately off the ground, and a third flight in December 2012 of 29 seconds duration, with extended hover under rocket engine power, in which it ascended to an altitude of before descending under rocket power to come to a successful vertical landing. Grasshopper made its eighth, and final, test flight on October 7, 2013, flying to an altitude of before making its eighth successful vertical landing. Grasshopper is retired.
Falcon 9 B1019 was the first Full Thrust booster, and was first launched on December 22, 2015, for Falcon 9 flight 20 and landed on the Landing Zone 1 (LZ1) at Cape Canaveral. It became the first orbital-class rocket booster to perform a successful return to launch site and vertical landing.
SpaceX decided not to fly the booster again. Rather, the rocket was moved a few miles north, refurbished by SpaceX at the adjacent Kennedy Space Center, to conduct a static fire test. This test aimed to assess the health of the recovered booster and the capability of this rocket design to fly repeatedly in the future. The historic booster is on display outside SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
Falcon 9 B1021 was the first booster to be re-flown and the first to land on a droneship. It was first launched on April 8, 2016, carrying a Dragon spacecraft and Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) on the SpaceX CRS-8 mission and landed on an autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS). After recovery, inspections and refurbishing, it was launched again on March 30, 2017, for the SES-10 mission and recovered successfully a second time. This event marks a milestone in SpaceX's drive to develop reusable rockets and reduce launch costs. Following the second flight, SpaceX stated that they plan to retire this booster and donate it to Cape Canaveral for public display. It was later put on public display outside Dish Network's headquarters in Littleton, Colorado in October 2023.
B1023 became the third orbital-class rocket to land on a droneship after launching Thaicom 8 into a geostationary transfer orbit on May 27, 2016. It was an unusually hard landing that crushed the energy absorbers on at least one of the landing legs, causing the booster to "walk" across the droneship and lean over, but the rocket arrived safely at Port Canaveral. B1025 successfully launched the CRS-9 resupply mission on its maiden flight on July 18, 2016, and landed on LZ-1, being the first after B1019 to do so. The mission carried a new docking adapter specifically designed for autonomous spacecraft to the ISS in preparation for Dragon 2 resupply and Commercial Crew missions.
B1023 and B1025 were assigned the role of side boosters for the Falcon Heavy test flight in 2017, after which they underwent separate static fire tests. The boosters were mated to a newly built Falcon Heavy core, B1033, for the flight. The maiden flight of Falcon Heavy on February 6, 2018, launched SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster and a dummy astronaut into a Mars-crossing heliocentric orbit. The boosters successfully separated from the core and performed synchronized landings on LZ-1 and LZ-2. B1033 failed to land on the droneship due to running out of ignition fluid which resulted in two of three engines failing to ignite for its landing burn. The droneship suffered minor damage.
B1023 is on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in its Falcon Heavy side booster configuration.
B1046 was the first Block 5, the final version of the SpaceX Falcon 9. It was first launched on May 11, 2018, carrying Bangabandhu-1, Bangladesh's first geostationary communications satellite. This marked the 54th flight of the Falcon 9 and the first flight of the Falcon 9 Block 5. After completing a successful ascent, B1046 landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. After inspection and refurbishment, B1046 was launched a second time on August 7, 2018, carrying the Telkom-4 (Merah Putih) satellite. The Telkom-4 mission marked the first time an orbital-class rocket booster launched two GTO missions. This was also the first re-flight of a Block 5 booster. Four months after the Telkom-4 mission, B1046 arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base to support the SSO-A mission. Following delays for additional satellite checks, liftoff occurred from SLC-4E on December 3, 2018. This marked the first time that the same orbital-class booster flew three times. Its fourth and last mission launched a Crew Dragon capsule up to the point of maximum dynamic pressure, where it separated from the rocket to test its abort system in flight to validate the system's safety for crews. After separation of Falcon and Dragon, B1046 was destroyed by aerodynamic forces.
B1048 was the third Falcon 9 Block 5 to fly and the second Block 5 booster to re-fly, and the first booster ever to be launched four, then five times. During the last launch, an engine shut down seconds before the planned shutdown, becoming only the second time a Merlin engine failed since the failure during the SpaceX CRS-1 in October 2012. The primary mission was unaffected and the Starlink payload deployed successfully, further confirming the reliability of the rocket due to redundancy of the engines. With reduced thrust, B1048 was unable to sufficiently slow down its descent, and thus was unable to land.
B1049 was the oldest Falcon 9 booster on active duty until its last flight on November 22, 2022, after which this title went to B1052. It was the first to successfully launch and land six, then seven times, and the second to launch and land eight, nine, and then ten times respectively. It launched two commercial payloads, Telstar 18V and the eighth Iridium NEXT batch, and eight internal Starlink batches. B1049 was seen with its landing legs and grid fins removed indicating that it would be expended on its next flight. The final flight of B1049 was originally thought to be O3b mPower 4-6 but a regrouping of the launches meant that an expendable booster was no longer required. It was then planned that B1049's last flight would be the launch of Nilesat-301 however, those plans changed and the mission was flown with a recoverable booster (B1062.7). B1049 flew the Eutelsat-10B communications satellite with a Test/Spare Block 4 interstage on November 22, 2022. This mission was its last flight.
B1050 launched for the first time on December 5, 2018. A grid fin malfunction occurred shortly after the entry burn, resulting in the booster performing a controlled landing in the ocean instead of the planned ground pad landing.
No future flights for B1050 were planned, and it was scrapped due to its damage, with some parts being recycled into the Starhopper test vehicle.
B1051 was the sixth Falcon 9 Block 5 booster built. On its maiden flight on March 2, 2019, it carried a Crew Dragon into orbit on the Demo-1 mission. It then flew its second mission out of Vandenberg AFB launching the Radarsat constellation. It then flew 4 Starlink missions and launched SXM-7, totaling 5 flights in 2020 alone, and becoming the first Falcon 9 to launch a commercial payload on its seventh flight. On December 18, 2021, it flew for a record 11th time. It was the first booster to be used eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve times respectively. It flew for the final time on November 12, 2022, for the Intelsat G-31/G-32 mission, and was expended.
B1056 first launched on May 4, 2019, carrying a Cargo Dragon to the ISS. Because of the failure of the static test fire of Crew Dragon C204's Super-Draco abort engines on LZ-1, it landed on a drone ship instead. It flew three more times. On February 17, 2020, B1056 was planned to perform the 50th orbital-class rocket landing, just 27 days after its previous launch. The booster soft-landed in the Atlantic Ocean and was severely damaged after launching Starlink satellites into orbit, becoming the first flight-proven Block 5 booster to fail landing.
Falcon 9 B1058 was first launched on May 30, 2020, from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (Apollo 11 launch site). It carried NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station. It was the first crewed orbital spaceflight launched from the United States since the final Space Shuttle mission, and the first crewed flight test of Dragon 2. It was the first crewed orbital spaceflight by a private company. The booster was the first and only Falcon 9 booster to feature NASA's worm logo and meatball insignia, which was reintroduced after last being used in 1992.
On September 11, 2022, it flew for the 14th time and became the first booster to be recovered 14 times. On December 17, 2022, it was also the first booster to fly and land for the 15th time. On July 10, 2023, it broke the reusability record of flying and landing an orbital-class rocket booster for the 16th time and later went on to be the first to complete 17, 18, and 19 launches in the same year.
Despite the successful landing in its nineteenth flight, the booster tipped over during transit due to rough seas and high winds. SpaceX has already equipped newer Falcon boosters with upgraded landing legs that have the capability to self-level and mitigate this type of issue.
B1060 first flew on June 30, 2020, a month after Demo-2. Further missions it supported include launches of Starlink v1, v1.5 and v2 Mini, two Transporter ridesharing missions, and three large commercial satellites. After becoming the senior active rocket for SpaceX on December 25, 2023, it was assigned to what would become the first successful commercial Lunar landing: the booster launched IM-1 on February 15, 2024. This was its eighteenth mission.
Falcon 9 B1061 first launched Crew-1 to the ISS on November 16, 2020, the first operational flight of Crew Dragon, and landed on a drone ship. It became the first booster to fly crew twice as well as the first reused booster to fly crew as a part of the Crew-2 mission. This first stage went on to complete additional missions. B1061 is the only booster to land on all of SpaceX's different landing zones and drone ships (not including LZ-2). It was expended on the ESA Hera launch on October 7, 2024. Booster 1061 flew a total of 23 flights, making it tied with B1062 for the oldest Falcon 9 booster.
Falcon 9 B1062 launched Inspiration4 in 2021, operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman. The mission launched the Crew Dragon Resilience on September 16, 2021, at 00:02:56 UTC from the Florida Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A atop a Falcon 9 launch vehicle, placed the Dragon capsule into low Earth orbit, and ended successfully on September 18, 2021, at 23:06:49 UTC, when the Resilience splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. B1062 held the record for the fastest booster turnaround time at 21 days and 4 hours between April 8, 2022 (Axiom-1) and April 29, 2022 (Starlink Group 4âÂÂ16) beating the previous record of 27 days and 6 hours held by B1060. This was the first time a booster had flown twice in the same calendar month. According to the SpaceX webcast of the Starlink Group 4-16 mission, the booster spent just nine days in refurbishment. This record withstood until B1080 broke it by launching within 14 days between November 11-24, 2024. This booster was the first booster to achieve 20 launches and landings. This booster completed 22 successful launch and landings, before tipping over on its 23rd landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas during the Starlink 8-6 mission.
Falcon 9 B1069 launched SpaceX CRS-24 to ISS in December 2021 for NASA. SpaceX achieved the feat of 100 successful orbital rocket booster landings in this mission, coinciding with the sixth anniversary of its first booster landing. The rough seas led to the Octagrabber robot not being able to secure the booster to the deck, leading to both the booster, droneship and the Octagrabber robot being heavily damaged in transit. It took months for SpaceX to refurbish B1069, returning into service only on Group 4-23 mission in August 2022.
On its next flight for Eutelsat Hotbird 13F, B1069 included a hosted promotional payload by FIFA, that was a box powered by Starlink containing two Adidas Al Rihla (the Journey) balls, that were to be used in 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. These match balls were launched and brought back by landing on the drone-ship surviving the stresses of re-entry. Later, they were taken out and shipped back to Qatar for the World Cup. This was the first payload on a Falcon 9 booster itself and demonstrated the reusability. The balls' flight by SpaceX was, in part, a promotion for the company's Starlink satellite internet service. An associated website invited World Cup attendees to visit the Starlink office in Doha.