Falcon 9

The Falcon 9 is a two stage launch vehicle that was designed and built by Space X. The Falcon 9 is able to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Vandenberg Air Force Base, and Kennedy Space Center. The launch vehicle is able to launch with a fairing or with a Space X Dragon Aircraft. The first stage of the Falcon 9 depending on the configuration uses 9 Merlin engines designed by Space X. There is either the Merlin 1C, Merlin 1D, or Merlin D1+. Each engine produces 756kN of thrust (170,000 pounds of force), or a total of 6,804kN of thrust (1.53 million pounds of force). The second stage of the Falcon 9 uses one Mvac engine that produces 934kN of thrust (210,000 pounds of force). The second stage also either uses a Merlin 1C, Merlin 1D, or a Merlin 1D+ depending upon the configuration of the launch vehicle. Additionally, each engine in both stages use liquid oxygen and kerosene as the propellant. Moreover, the Falcon 9 stands 70 meters tall (229ft), and has a diameter of 3.66 meters (12ft). On top of that, the launch vehicles payload fairing has a diameter of 5.2 meters (17.2ft), and is 13.2 meters tall (43.5ft). Now, the Falcon 9 uses a payload attach fitting that sits right below the payload fairing. With that being said, the Falcon 9 uses two different payload attach fittings depending on the payload mass. The light payload attach fitting can hold a capacity of 3,543kg (7,612lbs), while the heavy payload attach fitting can hold a capacity of 10,886kg (24,000lbs). Furthermore, the Falcon 9 has 5 different configurations. For example, there is the Falcon 9 V1.0, the Falcon 9 V1.1, the Falcon 9 Block 3, the Falcon 9 Block 4, and the Falcon 9 Block 5. As of now, the Falcon 9 Block 5 is the only configuration that is active today. So far, out of 57 launches, 55 of them have been successful. In addition, the Falcon 9 V1.0 has had 4 out of 5 successful launches, while the Falcon 9 V1.1 has had 14 out of 15 successful launches. Meanwhile, the Falcon 9 Block series has had 37 out 37 successful launches. On the other hand, the Falcon 9 successfully landed itself 23 out of 28 times. Lastly, the Falcon 9 was first launched on June 4, 2010 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 using the V1.0 configuration. The most recent launch occurred on May 11, 2018 using the Block 5 configuration for the Falcon 9. The rocket was launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A.  The mission was to send a Bangladesh Satellite called the, “Bangbandhu-1” to geostationary orbit for the Bangladesh Government.