According to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth<\/a> a little over eight minutes later. It touched down on the SpaceX<\/a> droneship “Just Read the Instructions,” which was stationed in The Bahamas’ Exuma Sound.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n \n A Falcon 9 first stage rests on the deck of a SpaceX drone ship in Exuma Sound after making the company’s first-ever Bahamas landing on Feb. 18, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)<\/p>\n It was just the second SpaceX landing in Bahamian waters. The first occurred in February 2025<\/a>, also during a Starlink launch.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Most Falcon 9 boosters that launch from the Space Coast touch down farther north, in the open waters of the Atlantic. But landing near The Bahamas offers advantages.<\/p>\n “Our new landing collaboration with The Bahamas will enable Falcon 9 to launch to new orbital trajectories,” SpaceX wrote via X<\/a> in February 2025.<\/p>\n Less than a month later, however, the upper stage of SpaceX’s Starship<\/a> megarocket broke apart over the Caribbean during a test flight, raining debris down on The Bahamas<\/a>. The nation put the SpaceX partnership on hold<\/a> in April 2025, saying it wanted to perform an environmental assessment of all rocket landings in the region.<\/p>\n \n A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 29 Starlink satellites launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)<\/p>\n Previous Booster 1077 launches<\/p>\n That work is complete. The Civil Aviation Authority of The Bahamas announced on Tuesday (Feb. 17) that it had cleared SpaceX<\/a> to land rockets in Exuma Sound once again.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/U5RTaQF4fPZxFJqTjY95zg.png\")
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