SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket now has 130 liftoffs below its belt this 12 months.
A Falcon 9 topped with 28 of the corporate’s Starlink web satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida right this moment (Oct. 16), rising off the pad at 5:57 a.m. EDT (0957 GMT).
The rocket’s first stage got here again to Earth as deliberate about 8.5 minutes later, touchdown within the Atlantic Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship “Just Read The Instructions.”
It was the third launch and landing for this particular booster, which is designated B1095. Its other two flights were also Starlink launches, according to a SpaceX mission description.
The Falcon 9’s higher stage, in the meantime, continued carrying the 28 Starlink satellites towards low Earth orbit (LEO), the place they’re scheduled to be deployed 64 minutes after liftoff.
Today’s launch was the one hundred and thirtieth Falcon 9 flight of 2025 already. That’s simply two shy of the rocket’s single-year document, which was set in 2024.
More than 70% of this 12 months’s Falcon 9 launches have been dedicated to constructing out the Starlink megaconstellation, which presently consists of nearly 8,600 operational satellites.
SpaceX has 5 different launches below its belt this 12 months as effectively — take a look at flights of its Starship megarocket, which the corporate is creating to take individuals to the moon and Mars. The most up-to-date Starship mission launched on Monday (Oct. 13) and was a whole success.