Aero-Linx: SpaceX Falcon 9
Overview
SpaceX notes that the Falcon launch vehicle family is designed
to provide breakthrough advances in reliability, cost, flight
environment and time to launch. Falcon 9 has nine Merlin engines
clustered together. This vehicle will be capable of sustaining an
engine failure at any point in flight and still successfully
completing its mission. This actually results in an even higher
level of reliability than a single engine stage. The SpaceX nine
engine architecture is an improved version of the architecture
employed by the Saturn V and Saturn I rockets of the Apollo
Program, which had flawless flight records despite losing engines
on a number of missions.