Head to head

Falcon 9 vs Falcon Heavy

Two vehicles in the same payload class. Every figure below comes from the same two sources for both rockets, and a row appears only when both publish the input.

Payload to low Earth orbit

Relative

Falcon 9: 22,800 kg

Falcon Heavy: 63,800 kg

Side by side

11 comparable figures

The highlighted value wins the row. Rows where neither direction is better, like length or stage count, highlight nothing.

Metric	Falcon 9	Falcon Heavy
Flights flown	697	14
Success rate	99.4%	100%
Payload to LEO (kg)	22,800	63,800
Payload to GTO (kg)	8,300	26,700
Launch cost	$52M	$90M
Cost per kg to LEO	$2,281	$1,411
Liftoff thrust (kN)	7,607	22,819
Length (m)	70	70
Diameter (m)	3.65	12.2
Launch mass (t)	549	1400
Stages	2	3

Falcon 9

Flight record

99.4% success rate693 of 697 flown · 4 failed

2010peak 2025 · 165 flights2026

Maiden flight 2018-05-11. Still flying.

Falcon Heavy

Flight record

100% success rate14 of 14 flown

2018peak 2023 · 5 flights2026

Maiden flight 2018-02-06. Still flying.

Falcon 9 is built by SpaceX of the United States (company profile on Space Index).Falcon Heavy is built by SpaceX of the United States (company profile on Space Index).

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Falcon 9 · Falcon Heavy.

Specifications from Launch Library 2 by The Space Devs, launch records from Space Index. Derived figures are computed here; see sources and method.