SpaceX launches Starlink satellites on its 150th Falcon 9 mission of the year

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Liftoff occurred at 2:53 a.m. EST on Saturday (Nov. 22).

a time-lapse photo showing a streak from a rocket launch arcing over the beach at night.
A time-lapse photograph captures a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Starlink satellites on its journey into low Earth orbit from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX reached another milestone with the launch of 29 more Starlink satellites for its broadband internet low Earth orbit constellation.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:53 a.m. EST (0753 GMT) on Saturday (Nov. 22). One hour and five minutes later, the Starlink satellite were deployed from the Falcon's upper stage.

"Falcon 9 completes its 150th launch of 2025," SpaceX posted to social media. "Deployment of 29 Starlink satellites confirmed."

a white and black rocket lifts off into the dark of night, its engine plume lighting its launch pad.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 29 Starlink satellites lifts off from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)
Booster 1090 missions

O3b mPOWER-E | Crew-10 | Bandwagon-3 | mPOWER-D | CRS-33 | four Starlink missions

The Falcon 9's first stage (Booster B1080) returned for a ninth time to a successful landing and recovery, in this case on the droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, according to a SpaceX page about the mission.

The 29 Starlink satellites (Group 6-79) added to the SpaceX-owned network, which now numbers more than 9,000 active units out of the over 10,400 launched since 2019, according to satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

In addition to being SpaceX's 150th Falcon 9 launch of this year, Saturday's mission was the 568th flight of the company's launch vehicle since 2010.

Robert Z. Pearlman
Robert Z. Pearlman
collectSPACE.com Editor, Space.com Contributor

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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