# Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is [[SpaceX]]'s medium-lift rocket and the most-flown rocket in the world today. Its first stage lands itself back on a ship or a landing pad after launch so it can fly again, and that single change, reusability, broke the economics of the launch industry. In 2025 Falcon 9 flew 165 orbital missions, about 85 percent of all U.S. orbital launches and nearly twice as many missions as all of China. One booster has flown 32 times. Falcon Heavy, which straps three Falcon 9 first stages together, handles the heaviest payloads. It last flew in October 2024. ## How it got here - **2008: the NASA rescue.** SpaceX was close to running out of money when [[NASA]] awarded it a $1.6 billion contract to fly cargo to the [[International Space Station]]. Musk has said the contract saved the company. NASA's commercial cargo program also helped pay for Falcon 9's development. - **2010: first flight.** - **2015: first landing.** A Falcon 9 first stage landed upright in December 2015. The first reflight of a used booster followed in 2017. - **2020s: the cadence explosion.** Falcon 9 went from 25 launches in 2020 to 96 in 2023, 134 in 2024 and 165 in 2025. Most of those flights carry SpaceX's own [[Starlink]] satellites: 123 of the 165 in 2025. ## Who depends on it Almost every part of American space activity now runs through this one rocket. - **Astronauts.** Falcon 9 launches [[SpaceX Dragon]], the only operational American spacecraft that can fly astronauts to the space station. - **The military.** It carries a large share of national-security satellites. In the Space Force's current launch contracts, SpaceX has won the majority of missions in both [[SpaceX NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 Awards]] and [[SpaceX NSSL Phase 3 Lane 2 Awards]]. - **Allies.** When Europe had no working heavy rocket in 2023–24, its space agency launched science missions on Falcon 9. After Russia cut it off, the UK-backed [[OneWeb]] finished its network partly on Falcon 9. - **Competitors.** Even [[Amazon]], whose Amazon Leo network is Starlink's main rival, bought Falcon 9 launches, flying three batches of satellites on it in 2025. ## Why it's on the map Falcon 9 is the clearest example of how a breakthrough in private engineering can turn into a public dependency. The rocket is a genuine technical achievement, built on NASA contracts and taxpayer-funded development. But it also means that U.S. access to space, for astronauts, spy satellites and allies alike, now runs largely through one company controlled by [[Elon Musk]]. This wiki treats that concentration as a strategic risk regardless of who owns the company. The Space Force's effort to keep [[United Launch Alliance]], [[Blue Origin]] and [[Rocket Lab]] in the game is an attempt to buy back redundancy that Falcon 9's success eliminated. ## See also - [[SpaceX]] · [[Elon Musk]] — the company and its owner - [[SpaceX Dragon]] — the crew and cargo capsule Falcon 9 launches - [[Starlink]] — the constellation that fills most Falcon 9 flights - [[Starship]] — SpaceX's fully reusable successor - [[Space Launch Infrastructure]] — launch as a strategic chokepoint - [[Space Hub]] — the parent hub