{"id":311043,"date":"2026-02-26T09:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/311043\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T09:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:44:11","slug":"spacex-launches-500th-starlink-satellite-in-2026-during-wednesday-falcon-9-flight-spaceflight-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/311043\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches 500th Starlink satellite in 2026 during Wednesday Falcon 9 flight \u2013 Spaceflight Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-72684\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260225_Starlink_17-26_satellites.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\"  \/>A batch of 25 SpaceX Starlink V2 Mini satellites are shown in orbit above the Earth during the Starlink 17-26 mission on Feb. 25, 2026. Image: SpaceX<\/p>\n<p>Update Feb. 25 10:15 a.m. EST (1515 UTC): SpaceX confirms touchdown of the booster.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX launched its 500th Starlink satellite of the year during a flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>The Starlink 17-26 mission added 25 broadband satellites to the growing constellation that\u2019s nearing 10,000 spacecraft in low Earth orbit. SpaceX confirmed a successful payload deployment an hour after liftoff. With this launch, SpaceX has flown 512 Starlink satellites to orbit in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 6:17:49 a.m. PST (9:17:49 a.m. EST \/ 1417:49 UTC). The Falcon 9 rocket flew on a southerly trajectory upon leaving the launch pad.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX launched the Starlink 17-26 mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number 1093. This was its 11th flight following two missions for the Space Development Agency and eight previous batches of Starlink satellites.<\/p>\n<p>A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1093 landed on the drone ship, \u2018Of Course I Still Love You,\u2019 positioned in the Pacific Ocean. This was the 180th landing on this vessel and the 577th booster landing for SpaceX.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A batch of 25 SpaceX Starlink V2 Mini satellites are shown in orbit above the Earth during the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-311043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}