Falcon 9 [RSS]

Falcon 9 vehicle

Falcon 9 is a two-stage launch vehicle powered by liquid oxygen (LOX) and rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1). The vehicle is designed, built and operated by SpaceX. Falcon 9 can be flown with a fairing or with a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. All first- and second-stage vehicle systems are the same in the two configurations; only the payload interface to the second stage changes between the fairing and Dragon configurations.

Falcon 9 was updated in the summer of 2015 to a Full Thrust configuration from its previous v1.1 configuration (flown from 2013 –summer 2015). Falcon 9 underwent further updates and first flew its Full Thrust Block 5 configuration in spring 2018. The Falcon 9 Block 5 architecture focused on improving performance, reliability, and life of the vehicle, as well as ensuring the vehicle’s ability to meet critical government crewed and non-crewed mission requirements. Engine performance on both stages was improved, releasing additional thrust capability. Thermal protection shielding was modified to support rapid recovery and refurbishment. Avionics designs, thrust structures, and other components were upgraded for commonality, reliability, and performance.

Second Stage

Total mass (no fairing): 97.5 tons

Propellant mass: 92.6 tons

Burn time: 6.5 minutes

Vacuum Delta-V: 12.3Km/s

First Stage

Total mass: 420 tons

Propellant mass: 395 tons

Burn time: 2.7 minutes

SL Delta-V: 8.87Km/s

Total Vehicle Mass: 521 tons

Image Gallery

Please Read:

•I do not recommend taking off the fairing, only drag it out using the Translate Part Tool. If you disconnect it, you will have to connect all the fairing's side interstages individually (there are 4 in each half)

• The flight is manual. The first stage has capacity to return/land, but it's all manual, so it's inviable to land it and continue the 2nd stage orbital insertion.