SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Booster B1046 – a two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle named after the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars – was destroyed on Sunday 19 January 2020. Here’s why.

SpaceX and NASA joined forces again over the weekend for the Crew Dragon’s In-Flight Abort (IFA) test. An unfortunate result was that the Falcon 9 rocket was destroyed in the process; on purpose.

Watch: Crew Dragon capsule separating from Falcon 9

Don’t worry, it was a controlled test and no one was hurt. The team had to ensure that the future models of the Falcon 9 would be capable of taking astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

The Falcon 9 rocket is the world’s first reusable orbit-class rocket. That means it’s designed to transport cargo to Earth’s orbit and return safely to Earth.

The tests carried out over the weekend just brought SpaceX one step closer to sending humans into space.

Watch: SpaceX destroys Falcon 9

Falcon 9 rocket: Stats for nerds

The Falcon 9 rocket has in been commission since 2012 and is the Falcon Heavy’s predecessor. The Falcon 9 carried approximately 50 000 kilograms of cargo into space throughout its lifetime.

The two-stage-to-orbit rocket has a mass of 541 300 kilograms. It can carry up to 22 800 kilograms of cargo in low Earth orbit; or up to 8 300 kilograms in geostationary transfer orbit.

Furthermore, the Falcon 9’s first stage has nine Merlin engines with a burn time of 162 seconds. In addition, the second stage has only one engine which ignites after stage separation. It has a burn time of 397 seconds.

Falcon 9 missions

Carrying the Bangabandhu-1 into orbit

The Falcon 9 was first launched in May 2018 and carried Bangladesh’s first geostationary communications satellite into orbit. After the flight, the B1046 landed safely on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship.

Carrying the Telkom-4 satellite

On 7 August 2018, the B1046 booster was used again to carry the Telkom-4 satellite. The B1046 made history as well: it was the first time that an orbital-class rocket booster launched two GTO missions.

SSO-A Mission

The Falcon 9 B1046 Boosters third mission took place on 3 December 2018 when it was taken to the Vandenberg Air Force Base to support the SSO-A Mission.