Falcon 9 Flight 20 [SEP] time of spacecraft launch
[{"answer": "22 December 2015", "provenance": [{"wikipedia_id": "46312851", "title": "Falcon 9 flight 20", "start_paragraph_id": 1, "start_character": 0, "end_paragraph_id": 1, "end_character": 157, "bleu_score": 1.0, "meta": {}, "section": "Section::::Abstract."}]}]
Falcon 9 v1.1


variants Falcon 9 Full Thrust and Falcon Heavy. , the Falcon 9 v1.1 commercial launch price was (up from in October 2013) competing for commercial launches in an increasingly competitive market. NASA resupply missions to the ISS—which include the provision of the space capsule payload, a new Dragon cargo spacecraft for each flight—have an average price of $133 million. The first twelve cargo transport flights contracted to NASA were done at one time, so no price change is reflected for the v1.1 launches as opposed to the v1.0
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Falcon (rocket family)


of SpaceX, effectively ending development of the Falcon 9 Air. The Big Falcon Rocket (commonly shortened to BFR), announced in September 2017, is SpaceX's proposed super-heavy-lift launch vehicle, spacecraft and space-ground infrastructure system of spaceflight technology, including reusable launch vehicles and spacecraft. This vehicle would ultimately replace the Falcon 9 and Heavy lines of SpaceX launch vehicles. BFR is proposed to be used for Earth ground-to-ground flight, cis-Lunar flight, and with the Interplanetary Transport System
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List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches


cargo to the ISS, but a secondary payload was stranded in a lower-than-planned orbit), and one failure (the CRS-7 spacecraft was lost in flight). Additionally, one rocket and its payload Amos-6 were destroyed before launch in preparation for an on-pad static fire test. The first rocket version Falcon 9 v1.0 was launched five times from June 2010 to March 2013, its successor Falcon 9 v1.1 15 times from September 2013 to January 2016, and the latest upgrade Falcon 9 Full Thrust 52 times from
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Falcon 9 v1.1


. This last goal was achieved on the first flight of the successor variant Falcon 9 Full Thrust, after several close calls with Falcon 9 v1.1. The Falcon 9 v1.1 is a two-stage, LOX/RP-1–powered launch vehicle. The original Falcon 9 flew five successful orbital launches in 2010–2013, all carrying the Dragon spacecraft or a test version of the spacecraft. The Falcon 9 v1.1 ELV is a 60 percent heavier rocket with 60 percent more thrust than the v1.0 version of the Falcon 9. It includes realigned first-stage
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Falcon 9 flight 20


December, which resulted in a launch delay of one day to 19 December (local time). The launch was subsequently delayed an additional day after statistical analysis indicated a somewhat higher probability of recovering the booster on the later date. The Falcon 9 Full Thrust launch vehicle used on flight 20 had a number of significant modifications from the previous Falcon 9 v1.1 vehicle. These included: Flight 20 was launched on 22 December 2015 at 01:29 UTC (21 December, 8:29 pm local time). Following successful launch and deployment of the
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Falcon 9 flight 20


cost of launching payloads into orbit. Falcon 9 flight 20 was the first launch of the substantially upgraded Falcon 9 Full Thrust version of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. It carried 11 Orbcomm-OG2 satellites to Earth orbit. The launch was also notable as it was the first SpaceX launch following the catastrophic failure of a Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle's second stage on Falcon 9 Flight 19 in June 2015. SES announced in February 2015 that it would provide the payload on the first launch of the revised-design Falcon 9 Full
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Orbcomm (satellite)


2015 have all been launched, on three flights. Orbcomm has options for a further thirty OG2 spacecraft. The satellites were launched by SpaceX on the Falcon 9 launch system. Originally, they were to launch on the smaller Falcon 1e rocket. The first of these satellites was launched on 7 October 2012 as secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.0 flight. The primary payload was for NASA to the ISS. On this launch the Falcon 9 had a failure in one of its nine first stage engines 79 seconds after liftoff from
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Falcon 9 flight 20


Falcon 9 flight 20 (also known as Orbcomm OG2 M2) was a Falcon 9 space launch that occurred on 22 December 2015 at 01:29 UTC (21 December, 8:29 pm local time). It was the first time that the first stage of an orbital rocket made a successful return and vertical landing. The successful landing of the first stage at Landing Zone 1, near the launch site, was the result of a five-year technology development program to develop a reusable launch system and came on a flight test that followed
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SpaceX CRS-1


SpaceX CRS-1, also known as SpX-1, was the third flight for Space Exploration Technologies Corporation's (SpaceX) uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft, the fourth overall flight for the company's two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle, and the first SpaceX operational mission under their Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. The launch occurred on 7 October 2012 at 20:34 EDT (8 October 2012 at 00:34 UTC). In May 2012, it was reported that the CRS-1 Falcon 9 had been transported to Cape Canaveral. The CRS-1 Dragon later arrived
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Vandenberg Air Force Base


9 v1.1. As the pad was nearing completion in February 2013, the first Falcon 9 launch was scheduled for summer 2013 and was finally launched on 29 September 2013. This was the maiden flight of the Falcon 9 v1.1 evolution, carrying Canada's CASSIOPE satellite.. In October 2018 SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a Vandenberg ground pad for the first time. The Boeing X-37B, a reusable unmanned spacecraft operated by USAF which is also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), has landed at Vandenberg in the past
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SpaceX CRS-5


Falcon 9 second stage engine. As this launch had an instantaneous launch window, meaning no delays are possible in the launch sequence, the flight was postponed to 9 January 2015. On 7 January, the flight was rescheduled for 10 January 2015. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the CRS-5 Dragon spacecraft successfully launched on 10 January 2015 at 9:47 UTC. Dragon reached the station on 12 January. It was grappled by the Space Station Remote Manipulator System at 10:54 UTC and berthed to the "Harmony" module at 13:56 UTC. The
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Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit


The Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit was a boilerplate version of the Dragon spacecraft manufactured by SpaceX. After using it for ground tests to rate Dragon's shape and mass in various tests, SpaceX launched it into low Earth orbit on the maiden flight of the Falcon 9 rocket, on June 4, 2010. SpaceX used the launch to evaluate the aerodynamic conditions on the spacecraft and performance of the carrier rocket in a real-world launch scenario, ahead of Dragon flights for NASA under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. The spacecraft orbited the
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Falcon 9 flight 20


Thrust (also called Falcon 9 v1.2 ). At the time, SES expected its SES-9 geostationary communications satellite would launch by September 2015. SES kept the decision despite the loss of the launch vehicle and payload of another SpaceX mission in June 2015, but postponed the launch until late 2015. On 16 October 2015, after considering all options, SpaceX announced a change: Orbcomm's 11 OG2 satellites would be the payload on the return-to-flight launch of the redesigned Falcon 9 instead of SES-9. The Orbcomm payload with
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SpaceX


v1.0 rocket successfully reached orbit on its first attempt on . Its third flight, COTS Demo Flight 2, launched on , and was the first commercial spacecraft to reach and dock with the International Space Station. The vehicle was upgraded to Falcon 9 v1.1 in 2013 and again in 2015 to the current Falcon 9 Full Thrust version. , Falcon 9 vehicles have flown 49 successful missions with one failure, the CRS-7 mission. An additional vehicle was destroyed during a routine test several days prior to a scheduled launch in 2016. In 2011
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Falcon 9 booster B1021


Falcon 9 booster B1021 is a first-stage reusable rocket booster for the Falcon 9 orbital launch vehicle manufactured by SpaceX. B1021 became the first rocket to land vertically on a ship at sea and is the first orbital-class first-stage booster to have been reflown in the history of rocketry. This Falcon 9 booster was first launched on 8 April 2016 for Falcon 9 flight 23 carrying a Dragon spacecraft on the CRS-8 mission to the International Space Station and landed vertically on an autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS). After recovery
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Falcon (rocket family)


delayed several times, occurring at 15:43 GMT on 8 December 2010. The rocket successfully deployed an operational Dragon spacecraft at 15:53 GMT. Dragon orbited the Earth twice, and then made a controlled reentry burn that put it on target for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico. With Dragon's safe recovery, SpaceX became the first private company to launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft; prior to this mission only government agencies had been able to recover orbital spacecraft. The first flight of the Falcon 9
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List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches


Orbcomm said they gathered useful test data from the mission and planned to send more satellites via SpaceX, which happened in July 2014 and December 2015. The mission continued to rendezvous and berth the Dragon capsule with the ISS where the ISS crew unloaded its payload and reloaded the spacecraft with cargo for return to Earth. SpaceX launched the maiden flight of the Falcon 9 v1.1 (also termed Block 2)—an essentially new launch vehicle, much larger and with greater thrust than Falcon 9 v1.0—on September 29, 2013, a demonstration launch. Although the
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Falcon 9 v1.0


The Falcon 9 v1.0 was the first member of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle family, designed and manufactured by SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. Development of the medium-lift launcher began in 2005, and it first flew in June 2010. The Falcon 9 v1.0 then launched four Dragon cargo spacecraft: one on an orbital test flight, then one demonstration and two operational resupply missions to the International Space Station under a Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. The two stage vehicle was powered by SpaceX's Merlin engines, burning liquid oxygen
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Falcon 9


attempt to land on a floating platform occurred in April 2015, on CRS-6. After the launch, Elon Musk communicated that the bipropellant valve had become stuck, and therefore the control system could not react rapidly enough for a successful landing. The first attempt to land the first stage of Falcon 9 on a ground pad near the launch site occurred on flight 20, the maiden flight of the Falcon 9 Full Thrust version in December 2015. The landing was successful and the first stage was recovered. This was the first time in
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SpaceX


program. SpaceX demonstrated cargo resupply and eventually crew transportation services using the Dragon. The first flight of a Dragon structural test article took place in June 2010, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during the maiden flight of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle; the mock-up Dragon lacked avionics, heat shield, and other key elements normally required of a fully operational spacecraft but contained all the necessary characteristics to validate the flight performance of the launch vehicle. An operational Dragon spacecraft was launched in December 2010 aboard COTS
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Falcon 9 first-stage landing tests


of the ASDS. The first attempt to land the first stage of Falcon 9 on a ground pad near the launch site occurred on flight 20, the maiden flight of the Falcon 9 Full Thrust version, on the evening of December 21, 2015. The landing was successful and the first stage was recovered. This was the first time in history that a rocket first stage returned to Earth after propelling an orbital launch mission and achieved a controlled vertical landing. SpaceX applied to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) US regulatory authority
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SpaceX


spacecraft, while SpaceX self-invested more than $500 million to develop the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. These Space Act Agreements have been shown to have saved NASA millions of dollars in development costs, making rocket development ~4-10 times cheaper than if produced by NASA alone. In December 2010, the launch of the COTS Demo Flight 1 mission, SpaceX became the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft. Dragon was successfully deployed into orbit, circled the Earth twice, and then made a controlled
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CASSIOPE


SpaceX, approximately 20% of the normal published price for SpaceX Falcon 9 LEO missions. Since this was the first flight of a new launch vehicle, the US Air Force had estimated the overall probability of failure on the mission was nearly fifty percent. In the event, the mission was successful, as was each of the next 13 Falcon 9 v1.1 missions before a launch vehicle failure and loss of mission occurred on Falcon 9 Flight 19 in June 2015. The Falcon 9 upper stage used to launch CASSIOPE was left in a
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SpaceX launch facilities


operation; thereafter, operational costs were expected to be $5–10 million per year. The sixth flight of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle launched in September 2013, which was the maiden flight of Falcon 9 v1.1. The site was used for a second time in January 2016 for the Jason-3 launch (which was the last flight of Falcon 9 v1.1) and for a third time in January 2017 for the first of the Iridium Next launches. SpaceX is building a new spaceport at Boca Chica Village near Brownsville, Texas for their private
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ITS launch vehicle


's atmosphere, land, and be prepared for another tanker flight. Both stages were designed by SpaceX to be fully reusable and were to land vertically, using a set of technologies previously developed by SpaceX and tested in 2013–2016 on a variety of Falcon 9 test vehicles as well as actual Falcon 9 launch vehicles. Importantly, the "fully and rapidly reusable" aspect of the ITS launch vehicle and spacecraft design was the largest factor in the SpaceX analysis for bringing down the currently huge cost of transporting mass to space, in general
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EELV Secondary Payload Adapter


, with a payload fairing recovered in a catch net on a marine vessel for the first time on the Falcon Heavy STP-2 flight in 2019. ESPA rings are also used on non-governmental private spacecraft missions as well. For example, multiple ESPA rings were used on a non-DoD launch of the Falcon 9 that carried the Orbcomm OG-2 constellation of communication satellites. The use of ESPA ring technology reduces launch costs for the primary mission and enables secondary and even tertiary missions with minimal impact to the original mission. Development was
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List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches


Since June 2010, rockets from the Falcon 9 family have been launched 76 times, with 74 full mission successes, one partial failure and one total loss of spacecraft. In addition, one rocket and its payload were destroyed on the launch pad in the fueling process before a static fire test. Designed and operated by private manufacturer SpaceX, the Falcon 9 rocket family includes the retired versions Falcon 9 v1.0, v1.1, and v1.2 "Full Thrust", along with the currently active Block 5 evolution. Falcon Heavy is a heavy
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SpaceX CRS-3


fairing, and the first experimental flight test of an ocean landing of the first stage on a NASA/Dragon mission. The Falcon 9 with CRS-3 on board launched on time at 19:25 UTC on 18 April 2014, and was grappled on 20 April at 11:14 UTC by Expedition 39 commander Koichi Wakata. The spacecraft was berthed to the ISS from 14:06 UTC on that day to 11:55 UTC on 18 May 2014. CRS-3 then successfully de-orbited and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California at 19:05 UTC on
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BFR (rocket)


and a full-up orbital flight test as early as 2020. The BFR system is intended to completely replace SpaceX's existing space transportation hardware (the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles and the Dragon spacecraft), initially aiming at the Earth-orbit launch market, but explicitly adding substantial capability to support long-duration spaceflight in the cislunar and Mars transport flight environments. The development of the BFR started in 2012, when in March, news accounts asserted that a Raptor upper-stage engine had begun development, although
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2009 in spaceflight


after its payload fairing malfunctioned. The first flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 carrier rocket was scheduled to occur in November, but was delayed to February 2010 to allow more time for preparations. The SpaceX Dragon, a commercial unmanned logistics spacecraft which was developed as part of NASA's COTS programme, was also scheduled to make its first flight in 2009, however its launch has also slipped to 2010 as a result of knock-on delays. The first H-II Transfer Vehicle, HTV-1, was successfully launched on the maiden
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SpaceX CRS-8


SpaceX CRS-8, also known as SpX-8, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station (ISS) which was launched on April 8, 2016, at 20:43 UTC. It was the 23rd flight of a Falcon 9 rocket, the tenth flight of a Dragon cargo spacecraft and the eighth operational mission contracted to SpaceX by NASA under the Commercial Resupply Services program. The capsule carried over of cargo to the ISS including the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), a prototype inflatable space habitat delivered in the vehicle's
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SpaceX CRS-2


SpaceX CRS-2, also known as SpX-2, was the fourth flight for SpaceX's uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft, the fifth and final flight for the company's two-stage Falcon 9 v1.0 launch vehicle, and the second SpaceX operational mission contracted to NASA under a Commercial Resupply Services contract. The launch occurred on March 1, 2013. A minor technical issue on the Dragon spacecraft involving the RCS thruster pods occurred upon reaching orbit, but it was recoverable. The vehicle was released from the station on March 26, 2013, at
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Cape Canaveral Air Force Station


as commercial satellite flights. SpaceX has also leased Launch Complex 39A from NASA and has completed modifying it to accommodate Falcon Heavy and Commercial Crew manned spaceflights to the ISS with their Crew Dragon spacecraft in 2018 or 2019. SpaceX Landing Zone 1 and 2, used to land first stages of the Falcon 9 and the side boosters of the Falcon Heavy, are located at the site of the former LC-13. On September 16, 2015, NASA announced that Blue Origin has leased Launch Complex 36 and will modify it as a launch site
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SpaceX Dragon


trunk section, which carries the spacecraft's solar panels and allows the transport of unpressurized cargo to the ISS, was first used for cargo on the SpaceX CRS-2 mission. The spacecraft is launched atop a Falcon 9 booster. The Dragon capsule is equipped with 18 Draco thrusters. During its initial cargo and crew flights, the Dragon capsule will land in the Pacific Ocean and be returned to the shore by ship. For the ISS Dragon cargo flights, the ISS's Canadarm2 grapples its Flight-Releasable Grapple Fixture and berths Dragon to
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Falcon 9 first-stage landing tests


in one of the outer engines (engine 9). Elon Musk reported that this may have been due to debris ingestion. This booster has been on display outside of SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California since August 20, 2016. Flight 21, the final launch of a Falcon 9 v1.1, carried the Jason 3 payload. At one point this was the first possible opportunity for an attempt to land the first stage on land, but the launches were reordered following the loss of Falcon 9 flight 19 in June 2015. Jason-3
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Falcon Heavy


in February 2018. A second flight occurred on 11 April 2019, launching Arabsat-6A. A third flight occurred on 25 June 2019 launching the STP-2 (DoD Space Test Program) payload. The payload was composed of 25 small spacecraft. Operational GTO missions for Intelsat and Inmarsat, which were planned for late 2017, were moved to the Falcon 9 Full Thrust rocket version as it had become powerful enough to lift those heavy payloads in its expendable configuration. At a July 2017 meeting of the International Space Station Research and Development meeting in Washington
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SpaceX Dragon


Dragon is a reusable cargo spacecraft developed by SpaceX, an American private space transportation company. Dragon is launched into orbit by the company's Falcon 9 launch vehicle. During its maiden flight in December 2010, Dragon became the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to be recovered successfully from orbit. On 25 May 2012, a cargo variant of Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous with and attach to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX is contracted to deliver cargo to the ISS under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services
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Falcon Heavy


by 2017. But in July 2017, SpaceX announced that the first test flight would take place in December 2017, pushing the launch of the second launch (Space Test Program 2) to June 2018. In May 2018, on the occasion of the first launch of the Falcon 9 Block 5 variant, a further delay to October 2018 was announced, and the launch was eventually pushed back to June 25, 2019. The STP-2 mission used three Block 5 cores. The payload for the STP-2 mission included 25 small spacecraft from
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Falcon 9 flight 26


Falcon 9 flight 26 was the 26th Falcon 9 space launch by SpaceX, which launched both ABS's ABS-2A and Eutelsat's Eutelsat 117 West B (formerly Satmex 9) to geostationary transfer orbit, that occurred on 15 June 2016 at 14:29 UTC (10:29am local time). After the launch, the first stage of the Falcon 9 experienced a hard landing and failed to land successfully on the deck of the droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Atlantic Ocean. The landing failed due to low thrust on one
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SpaceX CRS-3


SpaceX CRS-3, also known as SpX-3, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station, contracted to NASA, which was launched on 18 April 2014. It was the fifth flight for SpaceX's uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft and the third SpaceX operational mission contracted to NASA under a Commercial Resupply Services contract. This was the first launch of a Dragon capsule on the Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle, as previous launches used the smaller v1.0 configuration. It was also the first time the F9 v1.1 has flown without a payload
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SpaceX launch facilities


Falcon 9 Grasshopper v1.0 test vehicle are done at McGregor. High-altitude, high-velocity flight testing of Grasshopper v1.1 were planned to be done at Spaceport America. In addition to atmospheric flight testing, and rocket engine testing, the McGregor facility is also used for post-flight disassembly and defueling of the Dragon spacecraft following orbital missions. Both flight test facilities are principally involved in developing and testing various elements of the SpaceX reusable launch system development program, with a goal to making future SpaceX launch systems fully and rapidly reusable
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Falcon 9 v1.0


procurement—at based on a NASA environment/culture, or using a more commercial approach. In December 2010, the SpaceX production line was manufacturing one new Falcon 9 (and Dragon spacecraft) every three months, with a plan to double the production rate to one every six weeks in 2012. The v1.0 version of Falcon 9 was launched five times, all successfully carrying a Dragon spacecraft to low-Earth orbit, of which three achieved docking with the International Space Station. One of those missions deployed its secondary payload in
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Dragon C2+


Dragon C2+, also known as SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 (COTS 2), was the second test-flight for SpaceX's uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft, launched on the third flight of the company's two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The flight was performed under a funded agreement from NASA as the second Dragon demonstration mission in the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. The purpose of the COTS program is to develop and demonstrate commercial sources for cargo re-supply of the International Space Station (ISS
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Falcon 9 flight 20


OG2 satellites, the Merlin Vacuum (1D) second-stage engine successfully re-ignited, demonstrating its capability to launch SES-9 into geostationary transfer orbit. The engine burn de-orbited the second stage as planned for a destructive re-entry, preventing it from becoming space debris. Falcon 9 Flight 20 carried 11 Orbcomm-OG2 second-generation satellites, which will provide enhanced ORBCOMM messaging capabilities, increased data capacity, and automatic identification systems (AIS) service. All 11 satellites were successfully deployed by the Falcon 9 second
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Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment


Institute, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The PADME mission has four science instruments plus a radio science experiment which uses the spacecraft's radio communications system. The orbiter could also carry an optional laser communications experiment. PADME could launch on a Medium-lift class launch vehicle. The spacecraft would fit within all Atlas V, Delta IV, and Falcon 9 launch vehicle fairings. If selected, PADME would have been launched in August 2020 and reached
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Ratsat


Ratsat, or DemoSat, was a 165-kilogram (363-pound) non-functional boilerplate spacecraft used as a mass simulator on the fourth flight of the Falcon 1 rocket, launched 28 September 2008. The Falcon 1 launch that carried Ratsat to orbit was the first successful orbital launch of any privately funded and developed, liquid-propellant carrier rocket, the SpaceX Falcon 1, something only six nations had successfully accomplished previously. The launch, identified as "Falcon 1 Flight 4", was conducted by SpaceX, and also marked the first
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Dragon 2


Dragon 2 or Crew Dragon is a reusable spacecraft developed and manufactured by U.S. aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, intended as the successor to the Dragon cargo spacecraft. The spacecraft launches atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket and return via ocean splashdown. In comparison to Dragon, Dragon 2 has larger windows, new flight computers and avionics, redesigned solar arrays, and a modified outer mold line. The spacecraft is planned to have two variants – Crew Dragon, a human-rated capsule capable of carrying up to seven astronauts, and Cargo Dragon
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Falcon 9


payload, the CASSIOPE satellite; larger payloads followed for v1.1, starting with the launch of the large SES-8 GEO communications satellite. Both Falcon 9 v1.0 and Falcon 9 v1.1 were expendable launch vehicles (ELVs). The Falcon 9 Full Thrust made its first flight in December 2015. The first stage of the Falcon 9 Full Thrust version is reusable. The current version, known as Falcon 9 Block 5, made its first flight in May 2018. The first version of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, Falcon 9 v1.0, was
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Deep Space Climate Observatory


In February 2011, the Obama administration attempted to secure funding to re-purpose the DSCOVR spacecraft as a solar observatory to replace the aging Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft. In September 2013 NASA cleared "DSCOVR" to proceed to the implementation phase targeting an early 2015 launch, which had been announced in December 2012 as launching on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is providing management and systems engineering to the mission. In the 2017 documentary "", Al Gore speaks of the history of the
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Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit


. On March 13, 2010, the first stage engines successfully underwent a 3.5 second static test firing, having failed a previous attempt the day before. SpaceX announced in September 2009 that the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit would be the payload for the first Falcon 9 launch. At the time, launch was scheduled to occur no earlier than November 2009. The launch date had been delayed several times for various reasons, The spacecraft was launched and entered orbit on June 4, 2010. The first actual launch attempt targeted a four-
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3D-printed spacecraft


3D printing began to be used in production versions of spaceflight hardware in early 2014, when SpaceX first flew a flight-critical propulsion system assembly on an operational Falcon 9 flight. A number of other 3D-printed spacecraft assemblies have been ground-tested, including high-temperature, high-pressure rocket engine combustion chambers and the entire mechanical spaceframe and integral propellant tanks for a small satellite. A 3D printed rocket engine successfully launched a rocket to space in 2017, and to orbit in 2018. 3D printing began to be
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Boeing X-37


7 May 2017 shortly before 12:00 UTC. The fifth X-37B mission, designated USA-277 in orbit, was launched on 7 September 2017 at 14:00 UTC, just before the arrival of Hurricane Irma. The launch vehicle was a Falcon 9 rocket flying from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A, and number of small satellites also shared the ride. The spacecraft was inserted at a higher inclination orbit than previous missions, further expanding the X-37B's envelope. During the flight, the spacecraft modified its orbit, using an on-board propulsion system
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SpaceX CRS-7


SpaceX CRS-7, also known as SpX-7, was a private American rocket Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station, contracted to NASA, which launched and failed on June 28, 2015. It disintegrated 139 seconds into the flight after launch from Cape Canaveral, just before the first stage was to separate from the second stage. It was the ninth flight for SpaceX's uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft and the seventh SpaceX operational mission contracted to NASA under a Commercial Resupply Services contract. The vehicle launched on a Falcon 9 v1.1 launch
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Falcon 9


5 variant, flying since May 2018. Unlike most rockets, which are expendable launch systems, Falcon 9 is partially reusable, with the first stage capable of re-entering the atmosphere and landing back vertically after separating from the second stage. This feat was achieved for the first time on flight 20 with the v1.2 version in December 2015. Falcon 9 can lift payloads of up to to low Earth orbit, to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) when expended, and to GTO when the first stage is recovered. The heaviest
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SpaceX CRS-9


of SpaceX CRS-7 on 28 June 2015, the launch date was left open and, in September 2015, was moved to NET 21 March 2016. The flight was later pushed to 24 June, 27 June, 16 July, and finally 18 July 2016, as the crewed mission Soyuz MS-01 took the 24 June slot. CRS-9 launched on 18 July 2016 at 04:44 UTC from Cape Canaveral SLC-40 aboard a Falcon 9 launch vehicle. After 9 minutes and 37 seconds the Dragon spacecraft successfully separated from the rocket, and deployed its solar
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SpaceX Dragon


period commenced in 2014 and a result announced on 14 January 2016. The CRS2 launches are expected to commence in 2019, and extend to at least 2024. On 14 January 2016, NASA announced that three companies had been awarded contracts for a minimum of six launches each. SpaceX, Orbital ATK and Sierra Nevada Corporation won contracts. The first flight of the Falcon 9, a private flight, occurred in June 2010 and launched a stripped-down version of the Dragon capsule. This Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit had initially been used
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Falcon 9 first-stage landing tests


on the drone ship at sea remained open until the day of the launch. The final decision to return the booster to Cape Canaveral was made based on a number of factors, including weather at the potential landing sites. Flight 20 took off at 20:29 EST on December 21, 2015 (01:29 UTC on December 22, 2015). About 9 minutes and 45 seconds later, the first stage landed vertically on the pad. SpaceX does not plan to fly the Falcon 9 flight 20 first stage again. Rather, the rocket
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Space Shuttle program


Space Station was already being delivered commercially under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services by SpaceX's partially reusable Dragon spacecraft, followed by Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft in late 2013. Crew service to the ISS is currently provided by the Russian Soyuz while work on the Commercial Crew Development program proceeds; the first crewed flight of this is planned for July 2019, on the SpaceX Falcon 9 with Dragon 2 crew capsule. For missions beyond low Earth orbit, NASA is building the Space Launch System and the Orion (spacecraft). Space Shuttle
17628735
John Muratore


supported missions for NASA and NOAA making earth observations and performing atmospheric sampling. In 2010, Muratore returned to space development by joining SpaceX of Hawthorne California. He supported the first commercial Falcon-9/Dragon mission to the International Space Station in May 2012. Mr Muratore served as the Launch Chief Engineer for the Falcon 9-7 launch of the SES-8 satellite in December 2013, the Falcon 9-8 launch of the Thaicom-6 satellite in January 2014 and the Falcon 9-15 launch of the DSCOVR spacecraft in February 2015. Muratore led
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CASSIOPE


missions in the future. The eight e-POP scientific instruments were built, calibrated, and tested in 2005-2007, with integration onto the satellite bus for spacecraft-level testing in 2008-2009. The satellite was launched on September 29, 2013, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket. At the time the launch was contracted in 2005, a SpaceX Falcon 1 was the planned launch vehicle. The launch was originally scheduled for 2008 from Omelek Island. The launch date slipped several times, and after SpaceX discontinued
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Falcon 9 flight 20


had previously been successful, including two attempts earlier in 2015 to land a first stage on a floating landing platform. The entire controlled-descent through the atmosphere and landing attempt is an arrangement that is unusual for other launch vehicles. The flight test was planned for the twentieth Falcon 9 launch, even after the manifested payload was switched from SES-9 to the 11-satellite Orbcomm OG-2 payload. The test was scheduled for and successfully carried out on 21 December 2015, when the first stage landed intact at Landing Zone 1. SpaceX decided not
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Starship (spacecraft)


pressurization as well as initial launch and landing algorithms for the much larger 9-meter-diameter rocket. SpaceX originally developed their reusable booster technology for the 3-meter-diameter Falcon 9 from 2012 to 2018. It will also be the platform for the first flight tests of the full-flow staged combustion methalox Raptor engines, where the hopper vehicle is expected to be flight tested with up to three engines to facilitate engine-out tolerance testing. The high-altitude, high-velocity "Starship" orbital prototypes will be used to develop
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SpaceX CRS-12


under the CRS contract. Originally scheduled for December 2016, the flight was delayed multiple times to August 2017. Launch occurred on 14 August 2017 at 16:31:37 UTC from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. After Dragon rendezvoused with the ISS on 16 August 2017, the station's Canadarm2 grappled the spacecraft at 10:52 UTC. It was then berthed to the "Harmony" module at 13:07 UTC. Having been at the ISS for a month, the CRS-12 Dragon capsule was unberthed in the late hours of
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Falcon 9 flight 10


Falcon 9 flight 10 was a Falcon 9 space launch that occurred on July 14, 2014. It was the fifth launch of the Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle and carried six Orbcomm-OG2 telecommunication satellites. All six satellites were successfully deployed. Following the first stage loft of the second stage and payload on its orbital trajectory, SpaceX conducted a successful flight test on the spent first stage that received considerable news attention. In the event, the first stage successfully decelerated from hypersonic speed in the upper atmosphere, made a successful reentry
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Falcon (rocket family)


The Falcon rocket family is an American family of multi-use rocket launch vehicles developed and operated by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). The vehicles in this family include the flight-tested Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. The Falcon 1 made its first successful flight on 28 September 2008, after several failures on the initial attempts. The larger Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV)-class Falcon 9 flew successfully into orbit on its maiden launch on 4 June 2010. The Falcon 9 was designed for reuse; over a dozen
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SpaceX rocket engines


Dragon spacecraft, and on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle second-stage. SuperDraco storable-propellant hypergolic engines generate of thrust, making the SuperDraco the second most powerful engine developed by SpaceX, more than 200 times more powerful than the regular Draco RCS thruster engines. By comparison, it is more than two times as powerful as the Kestrel engine used in SpaceX's Falcon 1 launch vehicle second stage, and about 1/9 the thrust of a Merlin 1D engine. They will be used as Launch Abort System engines on the version 2
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Private spaceflight


and Dragon version 2 flight hardware was unveiled in May 2014. , both SpaceX and Boeing have received contracts from NASA to complete building, testing, and flying up to six flights of human-rated space capsules to the International Space Station beginning in 2017. In December 2010, SpaceX launched the second Falcon 9 and the first operational Dragon spacecraft. The mission was deemed fully successful, marking the first launch to space, atmospheric reentry and recovery of a capsule by a private company. Subsequent COTS missions included increasingly complex orbital tasks
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PnPSat-1


PnPSat-1 initiated in 2004 (also known as Plug-and-Play Satellite) is an experimental satellite built by the United States Air Force Research Laboratory. The spacecraft was the first choice for the third flight of the Falcon 1 rocket in August 2008, but was not selected because it was not completed at that time. The primary mission is to demonstrate concepts of plug-and-play spacecraft development by successfully constructing and launching a spacecraft based on several technologies developed for that purpose. The design of the spacecraft centers on the
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Elon Musk


by landing on an autonomous spaceport drone ship, an ocean-based recovery platform, and by the end of 2017, SpaceX had landed and recovered the first stage on 16 missions in a row where a landing and recovery were attempted, including all 14 attempts in 2017. 20 out of 42 first stage Falcon 9 boosters have been recovered overall since the Falcon 9 maiden flight in 2010. In the most recent full year—2017—SpaceX launched 18 successful Falcon 9 flights, more than doubling their highest previous year of 8. On February 6
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BulgariaSat-1


, BulgariaSat-1 was scheduled to launch by the end of 2016. Delays within SpaceX, including the loss of two Falcon 9 rockets, pushed the launch back to 15 June 2017; additional delays resulting from pressure within SpaceX's launch schedule and the need to replace a valve in the Falcon 9 launch fairing pushed the launch to 23 June. SpaceX launched BulgariaSat-1 on 23 June 2017 from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A. The Falcon 9 first stage B1029 used to launch the spacecraft was previously flown for an Iridium NEXT mission in January 2017
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VTVL


(Falcon 9), both having demonstrated recovery of launch vehicles after return to the launch site (RTLS) operations, with Blue Origin's New Shepard booster rocket making the first successful vertical landing on November 23, 2015 following a test flight that reached outer space, and SpaceX's Falcon 9 flight 20 marking the first landing of a commercial orbital booster roughly a month later, on December 22, 2015. VTVL rockets are not to be confused with aircraft which take off and land vertically which use the air for support and
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2010 in spaceflight


The year 2010 in spaceflight saw a number of notable events in worldwide spaceflight activities. These included the first test flight of the SpaceX Dragon commercial resupply spacecraft, which is intended to resupply the International Space Station (ISS), and the maiden flights of the Falcon 9 and Minotaur IV rockets. In June 2010, South Korea conducted a second Naro-1 launch, after the failure of the rocket's maiden flight in 2009; however, the second attempt also failed. The Kosmos-3M was retired from service, making its final flight
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2009 in spaceflight


the first time. This was the final flight of the Falcon 1, which was subsequently retired from service in favour of the Falcon 1e. At the start of the year, a mockup Falcon 9 was erected on its launch pad at Canaveral, however the type's maiden flight slipped into 2010. Sea Launch only conducted a single launch in 2009; a Zenit-3SL launched Sicral 1B in April. In June, the company was declared bankrupt, and subsequently it lost a number of launch contracts. By the end of the year
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Dragon C2+


The Falcon 9 launch vehicle arrived at SpaceX's Cape Canaveral, Florida facilities at Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) in July 2011. The mission's Dragon spacecraft arrived at the launch site on 23 October 2011. On 1 March 2012, a fueled countdown test called a Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR), was successfully completed for the COTS 2 mission. On 16 April its Flight Readiness Review (FRR) was completed by NASA and stated that a 30 April launch was feasible. Following the review SpaceX announced a launch delay,
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Falcon (rocket family)


a flight to take place in January 2010; however the maiden flight was postponed several times and took place on 4 June 2010. At 2:50pm EST the Falcon 9 rocket successfully reached orbit. The second flight for the Falcon 9 vehicle was the COTS Demo Flight 1, the first launch under the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract designed to provide "seed money" for development of new boosters. The original NASA contract called for the COTS Demo Flight 1 to occur the second quarter of 2008; this flight was
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Space burial


dog ashes were on the rocket, the person who supplied the cremated remains likely violated the contract they signed with Celestis. Dedicated Spacecraft On May 17, 2017, Elysium Space announced the world's first memorial flight involving a dedicated spacecraft. The cubesat will be placed as a secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of a dedicated rideshare mission called SSO-A planned by Spaceflight. The launch will take place from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Private companies such as Celestis, Inc., Elysium Space, Ascending
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Falcon 9 v1.1


on a full-size test article in vacuum chamber. SpaceX paid NASA to lease test time in the $150M NASA simulation chamber facility. The first flight of a Falcon 9 v1.1 ("CASSIOPE", September 2013) was the first launch of the Falcon 9 v1.1 as well as the Falcon 9 family configured with a payload fairing. The fairing separated without incident during the launch of CASSIOPE as well as the two subsequent GTO insertion missions. In Dragon missions, the capsule protects any small satellites, negating the need
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List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches


rocket carried CASSIOPE as a primary payload, CASSIOPE had a payload mass that is very small relative to the rocket's capability, and it did so at a discounted rate—approximately 20% of the normal published price for SpaceX Falcon 9 LEO missions—because the flight was a technology demonstration mission for SpaceX. After the second stage separated from the booster stage, SpaceX conducted a novel high-altitude, high-velocity flight test, wherein the booster attempted to reenter the lower atmosphere in a controlled manner and decelerate to a simulated
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List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches


took place on 8 December 2010. The booster placed the Dragon spacecraft in a roughly orbit. After two orbits, the capsule re-entered the atmosphere to be recovered off the coast of Mexico. This flight tested the pressure vessel integrity, attitude control using the Draco thrusters, telemetry, guidance, navigation, control systems, and the PICA-X heat shield, and intended to test the parachutes at speed. The "secret" test payload on this mission was a wheel of cheese. The capsule is now on display
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Commercial Resupply Services


Falcon 9 launch vehicles and Cygnus and Dragon cargo spacecraft were developed using Space Act Agreements under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. The first flight contracted by NASA, COTS Demo Flight 1, took place on 8 December 2010, demonstrating a Dragon capsule's ability to remain in orbit, receive and respond to ground commands, and communicate with NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. On 15 August 2011, SpaceX announced that NASA had combined the objectives of the COTS Demo Flight 2 and following Flight 3
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List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches


of 60 Starlink satellites weighing a total to a orbit. The heaviest payload launched to a GTO was Intelsat 35e with . Launches to higher orbits have included the DSCOVR probe to the Sun–Earth Lagrangian point L, the TESS space telescope launched on a Lunar flyby trajectory, and the Falcon Heavy test flight payload launched into a heliocentric orbit extending beyond the orbit of Mars. Rockets from the Falcon 9 family have been launched 76 times over , resulting in 74 full mission successes (), one partial success (CRS-1 delivered its
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CASSIOPE


the Falcon 1, the launch was shifted to the much larger Falcon 9 in June 2010. MDA contracted with SpaceX to put the CASSIOPE payload on the first flight of an essentially new launch vehicle—a non-operational demonstration launch. The Falcon 9 v1.1, upgraded from the original Falcon 9, is a 60 percent heavier rocket with 60% more thrust. The flight was contracted with a payload mass that is very small relative to the rocket's capability, at a discounted rate because it was a technology demonstration mission for
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SpaceX reusable launch system development program


a rocket efficiency exceeding the typical 3% margin. A SpaceX rocket operating in the reusable configuration has approximately 30% less payload lift capacity than the same rocket in an expendable configuration. Although the reusable launch system technology was developed and initially used for the first stages of the Falcon family of rockets it is particularly well suited to the Falcon Heavy where the two outer cores separate from the rocket earlier in the flight, and are therefore moving more slowly at stage separation. For example, on Falcon 9 flight 20, the speed
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Crew Dragon Demo-1


Zone 1. The spacecraft tested the approach and automated docking procedures with the International Space Station (ISS), consequent undocking from the ISS, full re-entry, splashdown and recovery steps to provide data requisite to subsequently qualify for flights transporting humans to the ISS. Life support systems were being monitored all along the test flight. The same capsulewas to be re-used later for an in-flight abort test. It was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket contracted by NASA's commercial crew program. Initial plans had
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List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches


-lift derivative of Falcon 9, combining a strengthened central core with two Falcon 9 first stages as side boosters. The Falcon design features reusable first-stage boosters, which land either on a ground pad near the launch site or on a drone ship at sea. In December 2015, Falcon 9 became the first rocket to land propulsively after delivering a payload to orbit. This achievement is expected to significantly reduce launch costs. Falcon family core boosters have successfully landed 44 times in 52 attempts. 20 of them have flown a
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Falcon 9


an expendable launch vehicle that was developed in 2005–2010, and was launched for the first time in 2010. Falcon 9 v1.0 made five flights in 2010–2013, after which it was retired. The Falcon 9 v1.0 first stage was powered by nine SpaceX Merlin 1C rocket engines arranged in a 3×3 pattern. Each of these engines had a sea-level thrust of for a total thrust on liftoff of about . The Falcon 9 v1.0 second stage was powered by a single Merlin 1C engine modified for vacuum operation, with an expansion ratio of
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Falcon 9 Full Thrust


tests was completed on 21 September 2015 and included the subcooled propellant and the improved Merlin 1D engines. The rocket reached full throttle during the static fire and was scheduled for launch no earlier than 17 November 2015. SES S.A., a satellite owner and operator, announced plans in February 2015 to launch its SES-9 satellite on the first flight of the Falcon 9 Full Thrust. In the event, SpaceX elected to launch SES-9 on the second flight of the Falcon 9 Full Thrust and to launch Orbcomm OG2's second constellation on the first
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Falcon 9 v1.1


Falcon 9 v1.1 was the second version of SpaceX's Falcon 9 orbital launch vehicle. The rocket was developed in 2011–2013, made its maiden launch in September 2013, and its final flight in January 2016. The Falcon 9 rocket was fully designed, manufactured, and operated by SpaceX. Following the second Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) launch, the initial version Falcon 9 v1.0 was retired from use and replaced by the v1.1 version. Falcon 9 v1.1 was a significant evolution from Falcon 9 v1.0, with 60 percent more thrust and weight
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Hayabusa


and sit on the asteroid surface for about 30 minutes (see timeline below). The "Hayabusa" spacecraft was launched on 9 May 2003 at 04:29:25 UTC on an M-V rocket from the Uchinoura Space Center (still called Kagoshima Space Center at that time). Following launch, the spacecraft's name was changed from the original MUSES-C to "Hayabusa", the Japanese word for falcon. The spacecraft's xenon ion engines (four separate units), operating near-continuously for two years, slowly moved
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ITS launch vehicle


by its "code name" BFR, with similar core vehicle structure (carbon fiber), engines (Raptor), and Mars mission architecture; but explicitly aimed at superseding and replacing the entire existing set of SpaceX launch vehicle and spacecraft offerings—Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and the Dragon spacecraft—with a more cost-effective LV, while being designed to be fully reusable like the ITS launch vehicle. The ITS launch vehicle stack is composed of two stages. The first stage is always an "interplanetary booster"
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SpaceX launch facilities


on of KSC property" to support a faster flight rate of "Falcon rockets, including processing of landed booster stages and recovered payload fairings for reuse." SpaceX operate a West Coast launch site located at Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 4 in order to deliver satellites to polar or Sun-synchronous orbits with Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. SpaceX broke ground at Vandenberg in July 2011. A 2011 estimate showed that the project was expected to cost between $20 to $30 million for the first 24 months of construction and
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List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches


assessed. Following a successful Falcon 9 launch, the first-stage booster landed at LZ-1. Unconfirmed reports suggested that the Zuma spacecraft was lost, with claims that either the payload failed following orbital release, or that the customer-provided adapter failed to release the satellite from the upper stage, while other claims argued that Zuma was in orbit and operating covertly. SpaceX's COO Gwynne Shotwell stated that their Falcon 9 "did everything correctly" and that "Information published that is contrary to this statement is categorically false."
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SpaceX CRS-14


February and 13 March 2018. Launch occurred on 2 April 2018 at 20:30 UTC on a Falcon 9 Full Thrust rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40. The Dragon spacecraft rendezvoused with the ISS on 4 April; it was captured by Canadarm2 at 10:40 UTC and was berthed to the "Harmony" module at 13:00 UTC. It remained there for just under 31 days before being unberthed by Canadarm2 in the early hours of 5 May 2018. The spacecraft was released at 13:23 UTC and autonomously backed away from the
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Mercury-Atlas 9


Center officials, however, believed that the Mercury team should be given the chance to test a human in space for a full day. In addition, all of the Soviet single-seat Vostok spacecraft launched after Vostok 1 lasted for more than a day; thus the Mercury 9 flight would bring the Mercury spacecraft up to the same level as that of the Soviets. In September 1962, NASA concluded negotiations with McDonnell to modify four Mercury spacecraft (#12, #15, #17 and #20) to a configuration
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SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 1


SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 1 was the first orbital spaceflight of the Dragon cargo spacecraft, and the second overall flight of the Falcon 9 rocket manufactured by SpaceX. It was also the first demonstration flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. The primary mission objectives were to test the orbital maneuvering and reentry of the Dragon capsule. The mission also aimed to test fixes to the Falcon 9 rocket, particularly the unplanned roll of the first stage that occurred during flight 1. Liftoff occurred on 8 December 2010 at 15:43
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Falcon 9


new Autonomous Flight Safety System (AFSS) that is built into Falcon 9 Full Thrust launch vehicles. For all SpaceX launches after 16 March 2017, the autonomous AFSS has replaced "the ground-based mission flight control personnel and equipment with on-board Positioning, Navigation and Timing sources and decision logic. The benefits of AFSS include increased public safety, reduced reliance on range infrastructure, reduced range spacelift cost, increased schedule predictability and availability, operational flexibility, and launch slot flexibility." On the June 25, 2017 mission
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Falcon 9 v1.1


for a 2015 launch pace of about two launches per month. The first launch of the substantially upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 vehicle successfully flew on 29 September 2013. The maiden Falcon 9 v1.1 launch included a number of "firsts": SpaceX conducted the fifteenth and final flight of the Falcon 9 v1.1 on 17 January 2016. Fourteen of those fifteen launches have successfully delivered their primary payloads to either Low Earth orbit or Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. The only failed mission of the Falcon 9 v1.1 was SpaceX CRS-7, which was lost during its
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Falcon 9 booster B1046


's McGregor facility for testing in preparation for its maiden flight. This Falcon 9 was first launched on May 11, 2018, carrying Bangabandhu-1, Bangladesh's first geostationary communications satellite. This marked the 54th flight of the Falcon 9 and the first flight of the Falcon 9 Block 5. After completing a successful ascent, B1046 separated from the second stage and landed on the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You". This marked the 11th successful landing on OCISLY and the 25th successful landing of the Falcon 9. After
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Falcon Heavy


but it did not occur until February 2018 due to limited manufacturing capacity and the need to deliver on the Falcon 9 launch manifest. By late 2013, SpaceX prices for space launch were already the lowest in the industry. SpaceX's price for reused spacecraft could be reduced up to 30% short term, and potentially even further in the future. Due to improvements to the performance of Falcon 9, some of the heavier satellites flown to GTO, such as Intelsat 35e and Inmarsat-5 F4, ended up being launched before the debut
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Falcon 9 v1.1


Falcon 9 Full Thrust flights, which achieved both the first ground landing in December 2015 and the first ship landing in April 2016. Falcon 9 v1.1 rockets were launched from both Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Vandenberg site was used for both the v1.1 maiden flight on 29 September 2013 and its last mission on 17 January 2016. Additional launch sites at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 pad A and Boca Chica, South Texas will launch the rocket's successor
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