Virtually 10 years to the day because it efficiently landed its first rocket stage, SpaceX in the present day (Dec. 14) recovered its 550th Falcon 9 booster.
The landing got here after the rocket’s first stage had lofted 27 Starlink satellites into area, lifting off from House Launch Complicated 4 East at Vandenberg House Pressure Base in California on Sunday at 12:49 a.m. EST (0549 GMT or 9:49 p.m. PST native time on Dec. 13).
Earlier Booster 1093 launches
T1TL-B |T1TL-C | 6 Starlink missions
Unlike the first Falcon 9 first stage landing in on Dec. 21, 2015, which arrived back on land, Sunday’s booster (B1093) fired one of its nine Merlin engines and deployed its four landing legs to come to rest atop the autonomous drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
The flight marked the stage’s ninth trip to space and back.
With the addition of the 27 satellites (Group 15-12), the Starlink megaconstellation now has over 9,300 active units out of the greater than 10,000 which were launched since 2019. The Starlink community supplies broadband web entry to areas around the globe, in addition to permits wifi on airways and cell-to-satellite entry on choose suppliers.
Sunday’s launch was SpaceX’s 162nd Falcon 9 flight in 2025, and 580th general.
