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SpaceX Falcon 9 block 5 certified for most important NASA missions

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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is qualified to launch NASA’s most expensive and highest-priority science missions.

NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP) has certified the two-stage Falcon 9 as a Category 3 rocket.

Falcon 9 Block 5, the rocket’s newest iteration that first took flight from KSC in May, recently earned LSP’s Category 3 certification, which enables the company to launch the agency’s highest-priority payloads.

Category 3 rockets are expected to have a demonstrated reliability of 90 to 95 percent.
Category 2 rockets are expected to have a demonstrated reliability of 80 to 90 percent.

Several different criteria have to be met to secure Category 3 status, though there are three “alternative” paths to earn it. Category 3 requires as few as three successful flights and as many as 14 depending on the level of access given to NASA officials. The more access NASA has, the more likely officials are to certify a rocket with fewer successful launches under its belt.

The Falcon 9 Block 5 has flown six successful missions – four from the Space Coast and two from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Including previous versions of Falcon 9, however, boosts that number to 60 missions with only one post-launch failure.

“LSP Category 3 certification is a major achievement for the Falcon 9 team and represents another key milestone in our close partnership with NASA,” SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said Thursday in a company-released statement. “We are honored to have the opportunity to provide cost-effective and reliable launch services to the country’s most critical scientific payloads.”

Falcon 9 has already boosted high-priority science payloads, such as this year’s launch of NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, and the internationally developed JASON-3 satellite. Both were managed by LSP and were Category 2 missions.

Moving forward, the certification will likely mean NASA and other agencies consider Falcon 9 for more complex and costly science missions.

13 thoughts on “SpaceX Falcon 9 block 5 certified for most important NASA missions”

  3. They’ve realized that Elon Musk would absolutely hold a press conference and say something like (Deep draw on a joint..) “These astronauts are dying but NASA refuses to let us stage a rescue because of Mr X, Mr Y and Ms Z in the certification committee. Yes those are their names. I’ve posted their contact details on twitter.” In normal bureaucratic worlds, not moving forward in allowing someone to do something is the safe, coveryourarse approach that becomes the default.In the brave new world of off-the-cuff (some would say off-their-medication) twitter comments and talk radio “gaffs” (ie. accidentally telling the truth) the normal world of politics and government is starting to realize that the rules have changed.Whether that’s a good thing on net remains to be seen.

  4. They’ve realized that Elon Musk would absolutely hold a press conference and say something like (Deep draw on a joint..) “These astronauts are dying but NASA refuses to let us stage a rescue because of Mr X, Mr Y and Ms Z in the certification committee. Yes those are their names. I’ve posted their contact details on twitter.”

    In normal bureaucratic worlds, not moving forward in allowing someone to do something is the safe, coveryourarse approach that becomes the default.

    In the brave new world of off-the-cuff (some would say off-their-medication) twitter comments and talk radio “gaffs” (ie. accidentally telling the truth) the normal world of politics and government is starting to realize that the rules have changed.

    Whether that’s a good thing on net remains to be seen.

  5. Which recalls me how fast things were at NASA in the 60s, when they did Mercury, Gemini and the Apollo lunar landings all in a single decade.Nothing like some pressure and sense or urgency to speed things up.

  6. Nothing like an emergency, (The potential need to evacuate the ISS due to Russian launchers being unavailable.) to speed things up.

  8. Which recalls me how fast things were at NASA in the 60s, when they did Mercury, Gemini and the Apollo lunar landings all in a single decade.

    Nothing like some pressure and sense or urgency to speed things up.

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