Editing SpaceX Merlin (section)

==Production==
{{as of|2011|08}}, SpaceX was producing Merlin engines at the rate of eight per month, planning eventually to raise production to about 33 engines per month (or 400 per year).<ref name="awst20110811"/>
By September 2013, SpaceX total manufacturing space had increased to nearly {{convert|1|e6ft2|order=flip|sp=us|abbr=off}}, and the factory had been configured to achieve a maximum production rate of up to 40 rocket cores per year, enough to use the 400 annual engines envisioned by the earlier engine plan.<ref name="sxProd20130924">{{cite web |title=Production at SpaceX |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403055117/http://www.spacex.com/news/2013/09/24/production-spacex |archive-date=April 3, 2016 |url-status=live |url=http://www.spacex.com/news/2013/09/24/production-spacex |date=September 24, 2013 |publisher=SpaceX |access-date=September 30, 2013}}</ref> By October 2014, SpaceX announced that it had manufactured the 100th Merlin&nbsp;1D engine and that engines were now being produced at a rate of four per week, soon to be increased to five.<ref name="sxProd20141022">{{cite web |title=SpaceX Completes 100th Merlin 1D Engine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404045516/http://www.spacex.com/news/2014/10/16/spacex-completes-100th-merlin-1d-engine |archive-date=April 4, 2016 |url-status=live |url=http://www.spacex.com/news/2014/10/16/spacex-completes-100th-merlin-1d-engine |date=October 22, 2014 |publisher=SpaceX |access-date=October 16, 2014}}</ref><ref name="spaceref20150626">{{cite web |title=SpaceX Prepared Testimony by Jeffrey Thornburg |url=http://spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=47400 |work=SpaceRef.com |date=June 26, 2015 |quote=the Merlin engine has now successfully flown to space more than 180 times (with 130 on the Merlin 1D), reliably delivering multiple payloads for U.S, Government and commercial customers to complex orbits. Due to the engine's highly manufacturable design, SpaceX is now producing 4 Merlin 1D engines per week, with current production capacity to produce 5 engines per week, far more than any other private rocket engine producer in the world. |access-date=December 27, 2015 |archive-date=March 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319120440/https://spaceref.com/status-report/spacex-prepared-testimony-by-jeffrey-thornburg/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In February 2016, SpaceX indicated that the company will need to build hundreds of engines a year in order to support a Falcon&nbsp;9/Falcon Heavy build rate of 30 rocket cores per year by the end of 2016.<ref name="sn20160204">{{cite news |last=Foust |first=Jeff |url=http://spacenews.com/spacex-seeks-to-accelerate-falcon-9-production-and-launch-rates-this-year/ |title=SpaceX seeks to accelerate Falcon 9 production and launch rates this year |work=[[SpaceNews (publication)|SpaceNews]] |date=February 4, 2016 |access-date=February 6, 2016 |archive-date=February 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20160209152801/http://spacenews.com/spacex-seeks-to-accelerate-falcon-9-production-and-launch-rates-this-year/ |url-status=live }}</ref><!-- no specific Merlin number was given in the Feb 2016 article, but nine M1D engines are used on each rocket core plus one M1Dvac used on each F9/FH second stage; implied number then (for late 2016) is something like 290/52 or 11 engines every two weeks, so roughly in line with their 5/wk mid-2015 number. -->{{update inline|date=November 2020}}

Each Falcon 9 booster uses nine Merlin engines, and the second stage uses one Merlin vacuum engine. The second stage is expended, so each launch consumes one Merlin Vacuum engine. SpaceX designed the booster with its engines to be recovered for reuse by propulsive landing, and the first recovered booster was reused in March 2017. By 2020, only five of the 26 Falcon 9 launched that year used new boosters. By 2021, only two of the 31 Falcon 9 launches used new boosters.