Head to head

Compare the fleet

Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Starship are launch vehicles — the numbers below (height, mass, thrust, payload) compare what gets them off the ground. Dragon is a spacecraft that rides on top of Falcon 9, so it's compared separately on the metrics that actually apply to it.

Launch vehicles

Height, mass, thrust & payload

All figures are maximum published values; Starship's are current design targets during active flight testing.

Height

meters

Falcon 9

70 m

Falcon Heavy

70 m

Starship

124.4 m

Liftoff mass

metric tons

Falcon 9

549 t

Falcon Heavy

1,420 t

Starship

5,300 t

Liftoff thrust

kilonewtons

Falcon 9

7,607 kN

Falcon Heavy

22,820 kN

Starship

89,500 kN

Payload to LEO

metric tons

Falcon 9

22.8 texpendable

Falcon Heavy

63.8 texpendable

Starship

100 tfully reusable, design target (220 t expendable)

Spacecraft

Dragon, in a category of its own

Dragon doesn't launch itself — it flies to orbit on top of a Falcon 9. Its numbers are about people and cargo, not thrust.

8.1 mHeight

Up to 7Crew capacity

Fully autonomousDocking

8× SuperDracoAbort engines

At a glance

Quick reference table

Vehicle	Falcon 9	Falcon Heavy	Dragon	Starship
Category	Launch Vehicle	Launch Vehicle	Spacecraft	Launch Vehicle
Height	70 m	70 m	8.1 m	124.4 m
First flight	June 4, 2010 (v1.0) · May 11, 2018 (Block 5)	February 6, 2018	December 8, 2010 (Dragon 1) · March 2, 2019 (Dragon 2, uncrewed) · May 30, 2020 (Dragon 2, crewed)	April 20, 2023 (first integrated flight test) · May 22, 2026 (first Block 3 / V3 flight)
Status	Active — Block 5 in regular service	Active — flew its 12th mission in April 2026 after an 18-month gap	Active — crew rotations & cargo resupply to the ISS	In active flight-test development — Block 3 ("V3") now flying
Reusable	Yes	Partially	Yes	Yes