SpaceX launched its 500th Starlink satellite of the year during a flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base on February 25th. The Falcon 9 rocket carried 25 Starlink Version 2 ‘Mini’ satellites, and later confirmed the successful touch-down of the booster stage.
The number of active Starlink satellites in orbit now exceeds 10,000.
The launch used a booster which was flown for the eleventh time. The booster landed on the floating barge ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ and this was the 180th landing on this vessel and the 577th booster landing for SpaceX.
This Starlink 17-26 mission added 25 broadband satellites to the growing constellation that’s 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.