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future rocket. The only difference between them was the
amount of engines. So SpaceX decided to skip Falcon 5 and
immediately begin developing Falcon 9.
The Falcon 1 is comparable to a smaller aircraft. But if
the Falcon 9 was an aircraft, it would be a 747 Jumbo Jet.^52
Higher than the Statue of Liberty, the Falcon 9 is an 180
foot [55 m] tall rocket. The rocket’s diameter and length
were optimized in a way that a truck can transport the
rocket on a normal road. SpaceX planned from beginning
that astronauts would be able to fly with it in a capsule on
the top of the rocket, so Falcon 9 had to be more reliable
than Falcon 1.^288
Nine engines in the first stage led to criticism on what
would happen if an engine is switched off after the launch.
And what would happen if an engine explodes? Wouldn’t
it be better to have fewer, but larger engines? During the
space race, the Saturn V rocket had five engines in the
first stage, and the Soviet version of the Saturn V, the N1
rocket, had 30 engines in the first stage. Because of the
complexity with so many engines, the N1 failed four times,
and the launches ended with a RUD [Rapid Unscheduled
Disassembly is space-industry parlance for explosion].
But the Russian engineers improved N1’s engines after
each failure. Just before they would have worked, the Soviet
government canceled the program. They disassembled the
remaining rockets and some parts became pigsties. But
they kept the engines, and the American company Orbital
Sciences would years later purchase them for use in the
Antares rocket.