List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches

This is a list of missions, historic and planned, for the SpaceX Falcon 9 family of launch vehicles. The four versions of the rocket are the Falcon 9 v1.0, Falcon 9 v1.1 (both retired), the currently-operational Falcon 9 Full Thrust, and the in-development Falcon Heavy.

The Falcon 9 maiden launch occurred on June 4, 2010 and was deemed a success, placing the test payload within 1 percent of the intended orbit. The second stage engine performed a short second burn to demonstrate its multiple firing capability.

The rocket experienced "a little bit of roll at liftoff" as Ken Bowersox from SpaceX put it. This roll had stopped prior to the craft reaching the top of the tower. The second stage began to slowly roll near the end of its burn, which was not expected.

The halo from the venting of propellant from the Falcon 9 second stage as it rolled in space could be seen from all of Eastern Australia where some believed it to be a UFO.

The second launch of Falcon 9 was called COTS Demo Flight 1, aiming to test an operational Dragon capsule. The launch took place on December 8, 2010. The booster placed the Dragon spacecraft in a roughly 300-kilometer (190 mi) orbit. After two orbits, the capsule re-entered the atmosphere to be recovered off the coast of Mexico. This flight tested the pressure vessel integrity, attitude control using the Draco thrusters, telemetry, guidance, navigation, control systems, the PICA-X heat shield, and parachutes at speed. The "secret" test payload on this mission was a wheel of cheese.

The NASA COTS qualification program included two more test flights Demo 2 and Demo 3 whose objectives were combined into a single Dragon C2+ mission, on condition that all Demo 2 milestones would be validated in space before proceeding with the ultimate demonstration goal: berthing Dragon to the International Space Station and delivering its cargo. After clearing a few readiness delays and a launch abort, the Dragon capsule was propelled to orbit on May 22, 2012 and tested its positioning system, solar panels, grapple fixture and proximity navigation sensors. Over the next two days, the spacecraft performed a series of maneuvers to catch up to the ISS orbit and prove its rendezvous capabilities at safe distances. On May 24, all the Demo 2 milestones had been successfully cleared and NASA approved the extended mission. On May 25, Dragon performed a series of close approach maneuvers until reaching its final hold position a mere 9 meters away from the Harmony nadir docking port. Astronaut Don Pettit subsequently grabbed the spacecraft with the station's robotic arm. On the next day, May 26 at 09:53 UTC, Pettit opened the hatch and remarked that Dragon "smells like a brand new car." Over the next few days, ISS crew unloaded the incoming cargo and filled Dragon with Earth-bound items such as experiment samples and unneeded hardware. The spacecraft was released on May 31 at 09:49 UTC and successfully completed all the return procedures: unberthing, maneuvering away from the ISS, deorbit burn, trunk jettison, atmospheric reentry, parachute deployment and ocean splashdown.

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