List of Falcon 9 first-stage boosters

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.

Changes included a larger fuel tank, uprated engines and supercooled propellant and oxidizer to increase performance.

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.

Guinness World Records holder B1067 is the current fleet leader after completing 24th and 25th launch & landings, the first to do so.

[a][234] In 2024, SpaceX broke their own record with 134 total Falcon flights (133 successful) accounting for over half of all orbital launches that year.

As vertical landings became more commonplace, SpaceX focused on streamlining the refurbishment process for boosters, making it faster and more cost-effective.

The central core is reinforced, while the side boosters feature aerodynamic nosecone instead of the usual interstage.

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).

For boosters having performed several launches, colored bars indicate the turnaround time for each flight.

It became the first orbital-class rocket booster to perform a successful return to launch site and vertical landing.

[243] 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.

It was first launched on 8 April 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 30 March 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.

[28][245][246][247][248] Following the second flight, SpaceX stated that they plan to retire this booster and donate it to Cape Canaveral for public display.

[257] The maiden flight of Falcon Heavy on 6 February 2018 launched SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster and a dummy astronaut into a Mars-crossing heliocentric orbit.

[258] B1023 is on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in its Falcon Heavy side booster configuration.

After inspection and refurbishment, B1046 was launched a second time on 7 August 2018, carrying the Telkom-4 (Merah Putih) satellite.

The primary mission was unaffected and the Starlink payload deployed successfully,[263] further confirming the reliability of the rocket due to redundancy of the engines.

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.

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 carried NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station.

[276] On 10 July 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.

[277] 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.

After becoming the senior active rocket for SpaceX on 25 December 2023, it was assigned to what would become the first successful commercial Lunar landing: the booster launched IM-1 on 15 February 2024.

[279] Falcon 9 B1061 first launched Crew-1 to the ISS on 16 November 2020, the first operational flight of Crew Dragon, and landed on a drone ship.

[286] These match balls were launched and brought back by landing on the drone-ship surviving the stresses of re-entry.

[287] The balls' flight by SpaceX was, in part, a promotion for the company's Starlink satellite internet service.