600 rocket landings! SpaceX notches another milestone during Sunday Starlink launch

At SpaceX, what has gone up has now successfully come down 600 times.

a white and black rocket lifts off into a deep blue sky riding atop a bright orange and white plume — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 25 Starlink satellites lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Station in California on Sunday, April 19, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)

Lifting off at 12:03 p.m. EDT (1603 GMT or 9:03 a.m. PDT local time) from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, the latest Falcon 9 rocket to fly deployed the Starlink broadband internet relay satellites (Group 17-22) an hour and two minutes after leaving Southern California.

The 25 spacecraft added to SpaceX's megaconstellation, which numbers more than 10,275 satellites circling the planet.

a rocket standing on its four landing legs just before engine cutoff atop an ocean-based droneship — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 25 Starlink satellites lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Station in California on April 19. The mission featured the 600th landing of a Falcon first stage. (Image credit: SpaceX)

At about eight minutes into Sunday's launch, the Falcon 9's first stage (Booster B1097) returned to Earth, touching down on its four landing legs on the "Of Course I Still Love You" droneship, which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean. In addition to being the 600th safe recovery of a Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rocket since 2015, it was the eighth landing for this particular booster.

The company reached 500 Falcon rocket landings in September 2025. Sunday's launch was SpaceX's 47th Falcon 9 launch of the year and 630th overall.

Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com, a daily news publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018.

In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History. In 2023, the National Space Club Florida Committee recognized Pearlman with the Kolcum News and Communications Award for excellence in telling the space story along the Space Coast and throughout the world.

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