SpaceX launches record-breaking 133rd Falcon 9 mission of the year (video)

SpaceX has broken its own record for number of rocket launches in a year, and is showing no signs of slowing down.

A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 28 of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base today (Oct. 22) at 10:16 a.m. EDT (1416 GMT; 7:16 a.m. local California time). It was the 133rd Falcon 9 flight of 2025, breaking the mark set by the rocket last year.

The satellites will add to SpaceX's growing megaconstellation in low Earth orbit (LEO), which provides wireless internet services to Starlink customer's across the globe.

Today's launch will be the 138th overall of 2025 for SpaceX, tying the record the company set in 2024.

Last year, SpaceX launched 132 Falcon 9 flights, two missions of the more powerful Falcon Heavy and four suborbital trials of its Starship megarocket. The Falcon Heavy has not flown yet in 2025; SpaceX's other five missions this year have been Starship test flights.

Falcon 9's first stage returned to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, landing in the Pacific Ocean on the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You."

It was be the 21st launch and touchdown for this particular booster, which is designated B1075. The rocket's upper stage, meanwhile, will continue carrying the Starlink satellites to LEO, deploying them there an hour after launch.

Today's launch will be the latest in a series of milestones that SpaceX has notched recently. For example, the company launched two Falcon 9 missions on Sunday (Oct. 19); one sent the 10,000th Starlink satellite to LEO, and the other was the record-breaking 31st flight for that particular Falcon 9's first stage.