– China's Long March rocket family: History and photos Falcon 9 has completed many dozens of missions successfully, but we can pick out a few trends for the rocket's use that show the importance of its work to SpaceX. The rocket is the booster of choice for SpaceX's Starlink fleet, which is a set of broadband satellites meant to deliver Internet service to remote areas. Starlink has several thousand members in orbit and SpaceX plans to grow the satellite fleet to tens of thousands of applications with the Federal Aviation Administration go to plan. Falcon 9 also delivers both cargo and people to the International Space Station. It flies the Dragon cargo spacecraft for regular deliveries of experiments, supplies and hardware to the orbiting complex. Since 2020, it has also been sending Crew Dragon missions for NASA aloft. It began sending crewed missions on behalf of Houston-based Axiom Space in 2022, which performs research on the ISS. It can also send people to other destinations in low-Earth orbit. In 2021, a Falcon 9 lifted the Crew Dragon carrying four individuals for Inspiration4, an all-private mission meant to raise money and awareness for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. Inspiration4 was bankrolled by Shift4 billionaire Jared Isaacman, who commanded the mission. Isaacman plans to return to space several more times under the Polaris Program, which is a set of space missions he is paying for. Polaris Dawn, the first of the series, should launch in 2022. Future SpaceX rocketry Its first voyage on Feb. 6, 2018, flew a Tesla Roadster (Musk also founded Tesla), carrying a mannequin named "Starman," to space. Falcon Heavy has been used for a few heavy-lift cargo missions in the years since and has a perfect flight record. Both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are expected to be superseded by Starship, a spacecraft system under development by SpaceX. Starship has been selected by NASA as the system that will land Artemis astronauts on the moon, and Musk also wants to use Starship for eventual human Mars missions. Starship has flown several test flights and is awaiting environmental approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct an orbital test, perhaps as soon as 2022. Additional resources Explore SpaceX’s website for more information on the Falcon 9 rocket including in-depth feature specifications. Stay up to date on SpaceX's launches on the company's Twitter feed. Watch SpaceX launches and landings on the company's YouTube channel. Bibliography