A Falcon 9 first-stage booster is a reusable rocket booster used on the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy orbital launch vehicles manufactured by SpaceX. The manufacture of first-stage booster constitutes about 60% of the launch price of a single expended Falcon 9 (and three of them over 80% of the launch price of an expended Falcon Heavy), which led SpaceX to develop a program dedicated to recovery and reuse of these boosters for a significant decrease in launch costs. After multiple attempts, some as early as 2010, at controlling the reentry of the first stage after its separation from the second stage, the first successful controlled landing of a first stage occurred on 22 December 2015, on the first flight of the Full Thrust version. Since then, Falcon 9 first-stage boosters have been landed and recovered 205 times out of attempts, including synchronized recoveries of the side-boosters of most Falcon Heavy flights. One of the Falcon Heavy center boosters landed softly but it was severely damaged during transport, and one mission, ViaSat-3, had the rocket’s side and center boosters fully expended, which makes it the first time that all of the boosters were expended.
In total recovered boosters have been refurbished and subsequently flown at least a second time, with a record of 17 missions. SpaceX intentionally limited Block 3 and Block 4 boosters to flying only two missions each, but the company indicated in 2018 that they expected the Block 5 versions to achieve ten flights, each with only minor refurbishment. This milestone was first achieved by Booster B1051 on the Starlink-27 mission in 2021.
All boosters in Block 4 and earlier have been retired, expended, or lost. The last flight of a Block 4 booster was in June 2018. Since then all boosters in the active fleet are Block 5.
Booster names are a B followed by a four-digit number. The first Falcon 9 version, v1.0, had boosters B0001 to B0007. All following boosters were numbered sequentially starting at B1001, the number 1 standing for first-stage booster.
List of boosters
v1.0 and v1.1
These boosters were the first two major versions of the Falcon 9. These boosters looked very different from the more recent models. They were much smaller and had much less power. On the maiden flight and second flight of V 1.0, SpaceX included basic recovery hardware (parachutes) to try and recover the booster. However, as the boosters broke up on re-entry due to aerodynamic forces both times, SpaceX gave up on parachutes and decided to pursue propulsive landings instead. First came some controlled water landings, then came the attempts on the drone ship "Just Read the Instructions 1". None of these boosters were recovered or survived landing after an orbital launch. Two test devices made several short flights each.
Full Thrust up to Block 4
Falcon 9 Full Thrust (or sometimes called Falcon 9 version 1.2) was the first version of the Falcon 9 to successfully land. Changes included a larger fuel tank, uprated engines and supercooled propellant and oxidizer to increase performance. Five different versions of Full Thrust have been produced, Block 1 to 4 (all retired) are found in this list while the active Block 5 is listed separately. Block 4 was a test version that included new hardware like titanium grid fins later used for the next and final major version of the Falcon 9, Block 5. Flights of all Falcon 9 rockets up to Block 4 were limited to 2 flights only, with a total of 14 second flights of these variants. The boosters were either retired or expended after that second launch.
Since no data is provided, Falcon 9 boosters listed as simply "FT" (Full Thrust) denote Blocks 1 to 3, while Block 4 is listed as "FT Block 4". All boosters are Falcon 9 variants, unless otherwise noted. Boosters B1023 and B1025 were Falcon 9 boosters, which were converted to Falcon Heavy side boosters for the Falcon Heavy test flight.
Block 5
There are three booster types: Falcon 9 (F9), Falcon Heavy core (FH core) boosters, and Falcon Heavy side (FH side) boosters. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy side boosters are reconfigurable to each other. A Falcon Heavy core booster is manufactured with structural supports for the side boosters and cannot be converted to a Falcon 9 booster or Falcon Heavy side booster. The interstage mounting hardware was changed after B1056. The newer interstage design features fewer pins holding the interstage on, reducing the amount of work needed to convert a Falcon 9 booster to a Falcon Heavy side booster.