SpaceX's Falcon 9 Rocket Licensed to Launch NASA's Most Valuable Science Missions

NASA 's Launch Services Program (LSP) has certified the two – stage Falcon 9 as a "Category 3" rocket, SpaceX representatives announced Thursday (Nov. 8).

"LSP Category 3 certification is a major achievement for the Falcon 9 team and another key milestone in our close partnership with NASA," SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said in a statement. "[See the Evolution of SpaceX’s Rockets in Pictures]

The LSP certification ladder only goes up to Category 3, which is reserved for the most dependable launchers. These rockets are expected to have a reliability of 90 to 95 percent, according to LSP officials.

For comparison, Category 2 vehicles – the level attained by the Falcon 9 in 2015 – are expected to ace their missions 80 to 90 percent of the time.

Only Category 3 rockets can launch the priciest, most important, most NASA missions – projects like the Space Telescope Hubble, the Mars rover Curiosity and the James Webb Space Telescope. (Hubble launched aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in April of 1990, Curiosity flew atop United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket in November of 2011 and Webb will ride an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket in March 2021.)

The Falcon 9 debuted in June 2010 launches under its belt. The Space Shuttle is a robotic Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station on a resupply run for NASA.

A Falcon 9 also exploded on the pad in September of 2016 during a prelaunch test, destroying the AMOS-6 satellite communications.

The Falcon 9 is partially reusable. SpaceX has successfully landed about 30 Falcon 9 first stages during orbital missions, and a number of these returned boosters have been refurbished and reflown. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said he'd like to reuse Falcon 9 second stages and payload fairings, but this has not happened yet.

The Falcon 9 already has some experience launching NASA science craft: Falcon 9s launched the agency Jason-3 Earth-satellite observation in January of 2016 and the planet-hunting Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey in April of this year. SpaceX has also used the rocket to launch an uncrewed Dragon cargo ships to the International Space Station for NASA, and will also use the booster to fly astronauts on its Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Mike Wall's book on the search for alien life , "Out There," will be published on Nov. 13 by Grand Central Publishing. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us or Facebook. Originally published on Space.com.