A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 29 Starlink satellites lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday at 7:12 p.m. EST.
Approximately 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s first stage successfully touched down on the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. This marked the 12th launch and landing for booster 1085, highlighting SpaceX’s continued reusability achievements, News.Az reports, citing Space.com.
The rocket’s upper stage deployed the 29 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit as planned about 65 minutes after launch, SpaceX announced via X.
Once they’re up and running, the newcomers will push the number of operational Starlink craft above 9,000. That count currently stands at 8,979, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.
So far in 2025, SpaceX has launched 148 Falcon 9 missions, 107 of which have been devoted to building out the Starlink megaconstellation.
The company has also launched five suborbital test flights of its giant Starship rocket this year. Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable.