Falcon 9· guided tour

Second Stage

the space stage

The second stage is the part that actually reaches orbit. It is much smaller than the booster because up there, there is no air pushing back and no ground pulling it sideways — it just needs to go fast.

Height

13.8 m

Engines

1 × Merlin Vacuum

Push

934 kN

How it works

Going to space is not really about going up. It is about going sideways fast enough that when you fall, you keep missing the Earth. That is what an orbit is: falling forever. The second stage is the part that gets the cargo up to that speed.

For the grown-up

Structurally identical tank architecture to stage 1 (LOX forward, RP-1 aft, common bulkhead-free design) but sized for vacuum operation. It is restartable — Falcon 9 second stages routinely perform a coast plus a second burn (SES-2) to circularise or raise the orbit.

Falcon 9 Block 5 — specifications