SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 28 Starlink satellites on its 29th-ever liftoff

a black and white rocket launches into a dark night sky

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 28 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Oct. 7, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched for the 29th time on Tuesday (Oct. 7), one shy of the company's reuse record.

A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 28 of the company's Starlink satellites lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Tuesday at 11:54 p.m. EDT (0354 GMT; 8:54 p.m. local California time).

The rocket's first stage returned to Earth as planned, touching down about 8.5 minutes after liftoff in the Pacific Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You."

view from a rocket's upper stage in orbit, showing a stack of satellites with earth in the background — View from the Falcon 9's upper stage, showing the stack of Starlink satellites before deployment. (Image credit: SpaceX)

It was the 29th launch and landing for this particular booster, which is designated B1071. The record holder, Booster 1067, launched for the 30th time in late August.

Meanwhile, the Falcon 9's upper stage continued carrying the 28 Starlink satellites toward low Earth orbit (LEO) today. They were deployed on schedule about 60 minutes after launch.

Previous Booster 1071 missions

Tuesday's launch was the 127th Falcon 9 flight of the year so far. More than 70% of these missions have been dedicated to building out the Starlink network, by far the largest satellite constellation ever assembled.

There are currently more than 8,500 operational Starlink satellites circling Earth, and more are going up all the time.

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Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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