SpaceX's Falcon 9 Rocket Certified to Launch NASA's Most Expensive Science Missions

SpaceX SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket can now launch NASA's most expensive and high-priority science missions.

NASA's launch service program (LSP) has certified the two-stage Falcon 9 as a "category 3" rocket, SpaceX representatives announced on Thursday.

"The LSP Category 3 certification is a major achievement for the Falcon 9 team and represents another key milestone in our close partnership with NASA," said Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX in a statement. "We are honored to be able to provide cost-effective and reliable launch services to the country's most critical scientific payloads." [See the Evolution of SpaceX’s Rockets in Pictures]

The LSP certification scale only goes up in category 3, reserved for the most reliable launchers. According to LSP officials, the reliability of these rockets should be 90 to 95%.

By comparison, category 2 vehicles – the level reached by Falcon 9 in 2015 – are expected to reach their missions 80 to 90% of the time.

Only Category 3 rockets can launch NASA's most expensive, largest and most complex missions – projects such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the Curiosity Rover Robot and the James Webb Space Telescope. (Hubble was launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery in April 1990, Curiosity flew over a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket in November 2011 and Webb piloted an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket in March 2021.)

The Falcon 9 debuted in June 2010 and has more than 60 launches under its belt. To date, only one flight has failed – a June 2015 takeoff that was supposed to send SpaceX's Dragon Robotic Cargo Capsule to the International Space Station for NASA replenishment.

A Falcon 9 also exploded on the platform in September 2016 during a pre-launch test, destroying the AMOS-6 communications satellite.

The Falcon 9 is partially reusable. SpaceX has successfully landed approximately 30 early stages of the Falcon 9 during orbital missions, and a number of these boosters have been refurbished and redesigned. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said he wants to reuse the Falcon 9 as well as the payload fairings (the nose cones that surround the satellites at launch), but that has not happened yet.

The Falcon 9 already has some experience in launching NASA's scientific know-how: the Falcon 9 launched the agency's Jason-3 Earth Observation satellite in January 2016 and the satellite Transiting Exoplanet Transiting survey, in April this year. SpaceX also used the rocket to launch unprepared Dragon cargoes to the International Space Station for NASA, and will also use the recall to fly astronauts aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Mike Wall's book on the quest for extraterrestrial life, "Out There," will be published on November 13 by Grand Central Publishing. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Originally posted on Space.com.