Falcon 9 Full Thrust

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Falcon 9 Full Thrust (also known as Falcon 9 v1.2) is a partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. It is the third major version of the Falcon 9 family, designed starting in 2014, with its first launch operations in December 2015. It was later refined into the Block 4 and Block 5. As of September 20, 2026, all variants of the Falcon 9 Full Thrust (including Block 4 and 5) had performed 669 launches with only one failure: Starlink Group 9-3. On 22 December 2015, the Full Thrust version of the Falcon 9 family was the first launch vehicle on an orbital trajectory to successfully vertically land a first stage. The landing followed a technology development program conducted from 2013 to 2015. Some of the required technology advances, such as landing legs, were pioneered on the Falcon 9 v1.1 version, but that version never landed intact. Starting in 2017, previously flown first-stage boosters were reused to launch new payloads into orbit. This quickly became routine, in 2018 and in 2019 more than half of all Falcon 9 flights reused a booster. In 2020 the fraction of reused boosters increased to 81%. Falcon 9 Full Thrust is a substantial upgrade over the previous Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket, which flew its last mission in January 2016. With uprated first- and second-stage engines, a larger second-stage propellant tank, and propellant densification, the vehicle can carry substantial payloads to geostationary orbit and perform a propulsive landing for recovery.