Falcon 9· guided tour

Merlin 1D Engines

the nine

Each one of these nine engines pushes with 845 kN of force. All by itself, one engine could lift about 86 cars. There are nine of them, and together they lift the whole rocket like it weighs nothing.

Push each
845 kN
How many
9
Weight each
470 kg
How it works

An engine works by burning fuel in a small chamber and letting the hot gas escape through a narrow throat. Squeezing gas through a small hole makes it go incredibly fast — and gas rushing down makes the rocket go up. That is Newton's third law doing its job.

For the grown-up

Gas-generator cycle, LOX/RP-1, 9.7 MPa chamber pressure, thrust-to-weight ratio of 184 — the highest of any flown orbital-class engine. Ignition is TEA-TEB, a pyrophoric mixture injected into the chamber that ignites on contact, so there is no spark plug to fail.

Merlin rocket engine family