Which one of the following aerospace companies designed and manufactured 'Falcon 9', a reusable rocket?

Correct — D, SpaceX. Falcon 9 is SpaceX's two-stage launch vehicle, flown first in June 2010 and designed so that the first stage flies back and lands upright for re-use. The first successful landing of that stage came in December 2015, and re-flying recovered boosters is what turned the rocket into the workhorse it is now — it carries Starlink satellites, commercial payloads, cargo to the International Space Station, and, in Crew Dragon, astronauts.

• (a)Blue Origin — Blue Origin is the closest rival in the reusable-rocket story, but its vehicles are New Shepard and New Glenn, not Falcon 9.
• (b)Boeing — Boeing builds the Starliner crew capsule and is a partner in United Launch Alliance, whose rockets are the Atlas and Delta families.
• (c)Lockheed Martin — Lockheed Martin is the other half of United Launch Alliance and built the Orion capsule; the Falcon name belongs to a different company.

Almost every rocket before Falcon 9 was thrown away after one flight, so the cost of reaching orbit was the cost of building a new vehicle each time. Recovering and re-flying the first stage — the most expensive part, carrying nine engines — is what changed launch economics, and it is the reason a private company now flies more orbital missions in a year than most national programmes.

There is a direct Indian thread. In June 2025 a Falcon 9 launched Axiom Mission 4 to the International Space Station, and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla flew on it — the first Indian on the station. Keep the company-to-vehicle pairs straight, because that is what these items test: SpaceX with Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Dragon and Starship; Blue Origin with New Shepard and New Glenn; ISRO with PSLV, GSLV and LVM3.

• Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket whose first stage returns to a landing pad or a drone ship.
• Its first flight was in June 2010 and the first successful booster landing came in December 2015.
• The Crew Dragon capsule carried on Falcon 9 has flown astronauts to the International Space Station since 2020.
• Axiom Mission 4 launched on a Falcon 9 on 25 June 2025 with Shubhanshu Shukla aboard.
• Blue Origin's suborbital vehicle is New Shepard; its orbital rocket is New Glenn.

• Swapping Falcon 9 with New Glenn when the question mentions re-usability.
• Assuming a rocket carrying NASA astronauts must be built by a government agency.

A vehicle-to-company pairing, or a one-line item on which rocket first landed its booster.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  New Shepard, a suborbital reusable rocket, is built by

  • (a)SpaceX
  • (b)Blue Origin
  • (c)Rocket Lab
  • (d)Virgin Galactic

  Answer(b) Blue Origin — SpaceX's vehicles are the Falcon family, Dragon and Starship.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The part of the Falcon 9 that is recovered and flown again is the

  • (a)first stage booster
  • (b)second stage
  • (c)payload fairing only
  • (d)entire vehicle including the upper stage

  Answer(a) first stage booster — it carries nine engines and is the costliest section, so recovering it saves the most.