section_path: Development history/Production
section_name: Production
paragraph_text: Production
  
  In December 2010, the SpaceX production line manufactured a Falcon 9 (and Dragon spacecraft) every three months. By September 2013, SpaceX's total manufacturing space had increased to nearly 93,000 m 2 (1,000,000 sq ft), in order to support a production capacity of 40 rocket cores annually. The factory was producing one Falcon 9 per month as of November 2013.
  
  By February 2016 the production rate for Falcon 9 cores had increased to 18 per year, and the number of first stage cores that could be assembled at one time reached six.
  
  Since 2018, SpaceX has routinely reused first stages, reducing the demand for new cores. In 2023, SpaceX performed 91 launches of Falcon 9 with only 4 using new boosters and successfully recovered the booster on all flights. The Hawthorne factory continues to produce one (expendable) second stage for each launch.