Worksheet · Ages 7–10 · 20 min
Put the launch in order
Nine real events from a Falcon 9 flight, jumbled. Children put them in order; the answer key gives the actual mission times.
These nine things really happened on one Falcon 9 flight, but they are in the wrong order. Number them 1 to 9.
Word bank
- The booster lands on its legs
- Max Q — the air pushes hardest
- Liftoff
- The nose cone falls away
- The two halves come apart
- The booster fires its engines to slow down
- The nine engines switch off
- The second stage lights its engine
- The second stage reaches orbit speed
1. How long after liftoff does the first stage switch its engines off?
2. Why do the two halves separate four seconds after the engines stop?
3. The whole booster landing happens about 8 minutes after liftoff. Is that faster or slower than you expected?
Which event would you most like to watch, and why?
For the grown-up
- Answer order: Liftoff (T+0) · Max Q (T+70s) · engines off, MECO (T+146s) · halves separate (T+150s) · second stage lights (T+157s) · nose cone falls away (T+176s) · booster slows itself, entry burn (T+369s) · booster lands (T+495s) · orbit speed reached, SECO (T+519s).
- Two things happen at once after separation, which children often find surprising: the top half is still accelerating towards orbit while the bottom half is already flying home. It is worth drawing both paths.
- Times come from a published Block 5 mission timeline, not an average — so they are real, but a different flight would differ by a few seconds.
Every number on this sheet comes from: Falcon 9 Block 5 mission timeline (Starlink Group 17-38)