List of Falcon 9 first-stage boosters


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 Falcon 9, which led SpaceX to develop a program dedicated to recovery and reuse of these boosters for a significant decrease in launch costs. After multiple attempts, some as early as 2010, at controlling the reentry of the first stage after its separation from the second stage, the first successful controlled landing of a first stage occurred on 22 December 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 the Falcon Heavy test flight, Arabsat-6A, and STP-2 missions. One out of three Falcon Heavy center boosters landed softly but it was severely damaged during transport.
In total recovered boosters have been refurbished and subsequently flown a second time including several boosters with three or four missions and two with five missions. SpaceX intentionally limited Block 3 and Block 4 boosters to flying only two missions each, but the company expects the Block 5 versions to achieve 10 flights each without major refurbishment.

List of boosters

Block 5

Block 5 is the final iteration of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters. Changes include a stronger heat shield, uprated engines, new carbon composite sections, retractable landing legs, titanium grid fins, and other additions that simplify refurbishment and allow for easier reusability. SpaceX claims that a block 5 booster can fly 10 times or more. On 4 June 2020, during the Starlink-7 mission, Booster B1049.5 was the first to complete 5 landings on the Droneships "Just Read The Instructions" and "Of Course I Still Love You" and is expected to fly again later in 2020.

Full Thrust up to Block 4

Falcon 9 Full Thrust was the first version of the Falcon 9 to successfully land. Changes included a larger fuel tank, uprated engines and superchilled propellant and oxidizer to increase performance. Also included in this list is the upgraded version of the full thrust variant called Falcon 9 block 4. Block 4 was a test version that included new hardware like titanium grid fins later used for the next and final major version of the Falcon 9, aka 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.

v1.0 and v1.1

These boosters were the first 2 major versions of the Falcon 9. Version 1.0 of the falcon 9 was the very first version. The Falcon 9 looked very different from what it does today and it was much smaller and had much less power. On the maiden flight and second flight of V 1.0, SpaceX included basic recovery hardware to try and recover the 1st stages. Unfortunetly, because the 1st stage broke up on re-entry due to aerodynamic forces both times, SpaceX gave up on parachutes and decided to pursue propulsive landings instead. First came some controlled water landings, then came the attempts on the Droneship "Just Read the Instructions 1". None of these boosters were recovered or survived landing after an orbital launch. Two test devices made several short flights each.

Statistics

Booster turnaround time

This chart displays the turnaround time, in months, between two flights of each booster. the shortest turnaround time was 1 month 20 days, for the second flight of B1058. Boosters that are still likely to be re-used are highlighted in bold and with an asterisk.

Full Thrust booster flight counts

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.

Falcon 9 FT booster timeline

This timeline displays all launches of Falcon 9 boosters starting with the first launch of a Full Thrust version. Active boosters that are expected to make additional flights in the future are marked with an asterisk. Single flights are marked with vertical lines. For boosters having performed several launches bars indicate the turnaround time for each flight.

  1. All measures are in pixels
ImageSize = width:550 height:640
PlotArea = left:50 right:30 bottom:20 top:10
AlignBars = late
Legend = left:370 top:240 orientation:vertical
Colors=
id:grid value:rgb
id:FTv1_2 value:rgb legend:Block_1-3
id:FTv1_2heavy value:rgb legend:FT-Heavy_sides
id:block4 value:rgb legend:Block_4
id:block5heavy value:rgb legend:Falcon_Heavy_side
id:block5 value:rgb legend:Block_5
id:block5_2 value:rgb legend:Block_5_flight_2
id:block5_3 value:rgb legend:Block_5_flight_3
id:block5_4 value:rgb legend:Block_5_flight_4
id:block5_5 value:rgb legend:Block_5_flight_5
id:planned value:rgb legend:planned
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/12/2015 till:01/01/2021
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:grid unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/2016
ScaleMinor = unit:month increment:1 start:01/12/2015
Define $dy = 7 # width of bars
BarData=
bar:1062 text:"1062*"
bar:1061 text:"1061*"
bar:1060 text:"1060*"
bar:1059 text:"1059*"
bar:1058 text:"1058*"
bar:1057 text:"1057"
bar:1056 text:"1056"
bar:1055 text:"1055"
bar:1054 text:"1054"
bar:1053 text:"1053*"
bar:1052 text:"1052*"
bar:1051 text:"1051*"
bar:1050 text:"1050"
bar:1049 text:"1049*"
bar:1048 text:"1048"
bar:1047 text:"1047"
bar:1046 text:"1046"
bar:1045 text:"1045"
bar:1044 text:"1044"
bar:1043 text:"1043"
bar:1042 text:"1042"
bar:1041 text:"1041"
bar:1040 text:"1040"
bar:1039 text:"1039"
bar:1038 text:"1038"
bar:1037 text:"1037"
bar:1036 text:"1036"
bar:1035 text:"1035"
bar:1034 text:"1034"
bar:1033 text:"1033"
bar:1032 text:"1032"
bar:1031 text:"1031"
bar:1030 text:"1030"
bar:1029 text:"1029"
bar:1028 text:"1028"
bar:1027 text:"1027"
bar:1026 text:"1026"
bar:1025 text:"1025"
bar:1024 text:"1024"
bar:1023 text:"1023"
bar:1022 text:"1022"
bar:1021 text:"1021"
bar:1020 text:"1020"
bar:1019 text:"1019"
PlotData=
bar:1019 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
at:22/12/2015
bar:1020 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
at:04/03/2016
bar:1021 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
from:08/04/2016 till:30/03/2017
bar:1022 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
at:06/05/2016
bar:1023 color:FTv1_2heavy width: mark:
from:27/05/2016 till:06/02/2018
bar:1024 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
at:15/06/2016
bar:1025 color:FTv1_2heavy width: mark:
from:18/07/2016 till:06/02/2018
bar:1026 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
at:14/08/2016
bar:1027 color:FTv1_2 width:
bar:1028 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
at:03/09/2016
bar:1029 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
from:14/01/2017 till:23/06/2017
bar:1030 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
at:16/03/2017
bar:1031 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
from:19/02/2017 till:11/10/2017
bar:1032 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
from:01/05/2017 till:31/01/2018
bar:1033 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
at:06/02/2018
bar:1034 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
at:15/05/2017
bar:1035 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
from:03/06/2017 till:15/12/2017
bar:1036 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
from:25/06/2017 till:23/12/2017
bar:1037 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
at:05/07/2017
bar:1038 color:FTv1_2 width: mark:
from:24/08/2017 till:22/02/2018
bar:1039 color:block4 width: mark:
from:14/08/2017 till:02/04/2018
bar:1040 color:block4 width: mark:
from:07/09/2017 till:04/06/2018
bar:1041 color:block4 width: mark:
from:09/10/2017 till:30/03/2018
bar:1042 color:block4 width: mark:
at:30/10/2017
bar:1043 color:block4 width: mark:
from:08/01/2018 till:22/05/2018
bar:1044 color:block4 width: mark:
at:06/03/2018
bar:1045 color:block4 width: mark:
from:18/04/2018 till:29/06/2018
bar:1046 color:block5_2 width: mark:
from:11/05/2018 till:07/08/2018
bar:1046 color:block5_3 width: mark:
from:07/08/2018 till:03/12/2018
bar:1046 color:block5_4 width: mark:
from:03/12/2018 till:19/02/2020
bar:1047 color:block5_2 width: mark:
from:22/07/2018 till:15/11/2018
bar:1047 color:block5_3 width: mark:
from:15/11/2018 till:06/08/2019
bar:1048 color:block5_2 width: mark:
from:25/07/2018 till:08/10/2018
bar:1048 color:block5_3 width: mark:
from:08/10/2018 till:22/02/2019
bar:1048 color:block5_4 width: mark:
from:22/02/2019 till:11/11/2019
bar:1048 color:block5_5 width: mark:
from:11/11/2019 till:18/03/2020
bar:1049 color:block5_2 width: mark:
from:10/09/2018 till:11/01/2019
bar:1049 color:block5_3 width: mark:
from:11/01/2019 till:24/05/2019
bar:1049 color:block5_4 width: mark:
from:24/05/2019 till:07/01/2020
bar:1049 color:block5_5 width: mark:
from:07/01/2020 till:04/06/2020
bar:1049 color:planned width: mark:
from:04/06/2020 till:15/08/2020
bar:1050 color:block5 width: mark:
at:05/12/2018
bar:1051 color:block5_2 width: mark:
from:05/03/2019 till:12/06/2019
bar:1051 color:block5_3 width: mark:
from:12/06/2019 till:29/01/2020
bar:1051 color:block5_4 width: mark:
from:29/01/2020 till:22/04/2020
bar:1051 color:planned width: mark:
from:22/04/2020 till:30/07/2020
bar:1052 color:block5heavy width: mark:
from:11/04/2019 till:25/06/2019
bar:1053 color:block5heavy width: mark:
from:11/04/2019 till:25/06/2019
bar:1054 color:block5 width: mark:
at:23/12/2018
bar:1055 color:block5 width: mark:
at:11/04/2019
bar:1056 color:block5_2 width: mark:
from:04/05/2019 till:25/07/2019
bar:1056 color:block5_3 width: mark:
from:25/07/2019 till:17/12/2019
bar:1056 color:block5_4 width: mark:
from:17/12/2019 till:17/02/2020
bar:1057 color:block5 width: mark:
at:25/06/2019
bar:1058 color:block5_2 width: mark:
from:30/05/2020 till:20/07/2020
bar:1058 color:block5 width: mark:
at:30/05/2020
bar:1059 color:block5_2 width: mark:
from:05/12/2019 till:07/03/2020
bar:1059 color:block5_3 width: mark:
from:07/03/2020 till:13/06/2020
bar:1059 color:planned width: mark:
from:13/06/2020 till:30/07/2020
bar:1060 color:planned width: mark:
from:30/06/2020 till:30/08/2020
bar:1060 color:block5 width: mark:
at:30/06/2020
bar:1061 color:planned width: mark:
at:15/09/2020
bar:1062 color:planned width: mark:
at:30/09/2020
LineData=
from:start till:end atpos:42 width:0.5 color:grid
from:start till:end atpos:111 width:0.5 color:grid
from:start till:end atpos:180 width:0.5 color:grid
from:start till:end atpos:249 width:0.5 color:grid
from:start till:end atpos:318 width:0.5 color:grid
from:start till:end atpos:387 width:0.5 color:grid
from:start till:end atpos:456 width:0.5 color:grid
from:start till:end atpos:525 width:0.5 color:grid
from:start till:end atpos:594 width:0.5 color:grid