FALCON 9

OVERVIEW

HEIGHT 70 m / 229.6 ft

DIAMETER 3.7 m / 12 ft

MASS 549,054 kg / 1,207,920 lb

PAYLOAD TO LEO 22,800 kg / 50,265 lb

PAYLOAD TO GTO 8,300 kg / 18,300 lb

PAYLOAD TO MARS 4,020 kg / 8,860 lb

FIRST STAGE

Falcon 9’s first stage incorporates nine Merlin engines and aluminum-lithium alloy tanks containing liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) propellant.

Falcon 9 generates more than 1.7 million pounds of thrust at sea level.

SECOND STAGE

The second stage, powered by a single Merlin Vacuum Engine, delivers Falcon 9’s payload to the desired orbit. The second stage engine ignites a few seconds after stage separation, and can be restarted multiple times to place multiple payloads into different orbits.

NUMBER OF ENGINES 1 vacuum

BURN TIME 397 sec

THRUST 981 kN / 220,500 lbf