SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites to orbit from California on brand-new Falcon 9 rocket (video)

Another SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just earned its wings.

A Falcon 9 with a brand-new first stage lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California today (Sept. 2) at 11:51 p.m. EDT (8:51 p.m. local time; 0351 GMT on Sept. 3), carrying 24 of the company's Starlink internet satellites toward low Earth orbit (LEO).

Such debuts are rare for SpaceX, which is famous for its extensive rocket reuse. Indeed, one of its Falcon 9 boosters flew for a record 30th time just last week.

And the booster that launched today will get a chance to fly again: It aced its landing, coming down at sea on the SpaceX drone ship "Just Read the Instructions" about 8.5 minutes after liftoff as planned.

The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, continued carrying the Starlink satellites toward LEO. They're scheduled to be deployed 62.5 minutes after launch.

The new batch will join nearly 8,300 other operational Starlink satellites up there, continuing to flesh out the biggest spacecraft network ever assembled.

Many of those Starlinks have gone up this year. Today's launch was the 109th Falcon 9 flight of 2025, and more than 70% of them have been Starlink missions.