Falcon 9 first stage
Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.
Turn it in 3D
Open the 3D viewer (www.spaceradar.ai).
The viewer loads when you ask: about 700 kB the first time (three.js and the model), much less after.
About this model
Falcon 9 first stage is one of the 203 3D models Space Radar made itself: a rocket stage, built in code from published dimensions and photographs, with no image-to-3D generator and no one else’s mesh.
Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified. It has 22,112 triangles in a 141 kB glTF file, and is 41 m across at full scale.
It is part of the map’s library; no object on the live map is drawn with it today.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Height | 41.2 m |
| Diameter | 3.66 m |
| Interstage | 4.4 m |
| Engines | 9 |
Wikipedia, Falcon 9 Full Thrust (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_9_Full_Thrust), OPENED 2026-11-03: the first stage '41.2 m' long and '3.7 m' across, '69.8 m' with the payload fairing, the Full Thrust grid fins aluminium until June 2017 (so those of 2015 were aluminium); nine Merlin 1D (the Full Thrust page and the Falcon 9 article). OURS: the interstage's 4.4 m, the tank rings, the leg and fin shapes (a single strut with braces; a lattice of 5 by 3 cells 1.5 m across), the reach of the legs (a foot about 9 m out, so a span near 18 m: not read in a source this release), the soot is not drawn (read 2026-11-03)
How it was made
Built in code from published dimensions and photographs, with no image-to-3D generator and no one else’s mesh. 3D model: built by Space Radar from SpaceX's published dimensions; compared with SpaceX's CC0 photographs.
The full record
built by this project in code (tools/falcon9-builder/falcon9.py, on release 1.4.0's stage builder); no image-to-3D model and no published mesh: none of NASA 3D Resources' paths is a Falcon 9 and no operator model of it was found (read 2026-11-03)
Where the map uses it. NOTHING YET, as a route on the map: the Falcon 9 Full Thrust first stage of the `falcon9-og2-2` Moment (release 1.7.7), the first landing of a first stage: 41.2 m of white tank with its nine Merlin 1D, the 4.4 m black interstage, four landing legs folded up the side and four grid fins lying on the interstage, each its own part that the Moment poses (the legs turn 110 degrees about their hinges to a foot about 9 m out, the fins swing 90 degrees). Loaded by id; frame: +Y up the stage, the engine exits on y = 0, the octagon's ring 1.05 m out; stand it with keepXZ
Licence note. The shape is this project's, under this repository's licence, built from published numbers (facts). The photograph it was compared with is CC0.
References 1
What the shape was compared with. None of these pictures is in the file.
- Falcon 9 first stage at LZ-1(two)SpaceXCC0 (Commons LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-03)
.jpg){kind=link}
Use it
The model is under the MIT licence: use it, change it and share it, in any project, also a paid one. Keep the credit:
Falcon 9 first stage 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT LicenseAny glTF 2.0 loader that reads meshopt compression (EXT_meshopt_compression) opens the file: three.js with its MeshoptDecoder, Babylon.js, model-viewer. Tools such as glTF-Transform can write an uncompressed copy.
Or embed the viewer in your page:
<iframe src="https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=falcon9-stage1" title="Falcon 9 first stage, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
R-7 (8K72K) core and Blok E
Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.
Delta II second stage
Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.