Two Falcon 9 rockets lifted off from spaceports in Florida and California on Sunday afternoon, adding 56 more satellites to SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network.
The second of these two launches—originating from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California—propelled SpaceX’s Starlink program past a notable milestone. With the satellites added to the constellation Sunday, the company has delivered more than 10,000 mass-produced Starlink spacecraft to low-Earth orbit.
The exact figure stands at 10,006 satellites, according to a tabulation by Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist who expertly tracks comings and goings between Earth and space. This number includes dozens of Starlink demo satellites, but not the dummy spacecraft carried on SpaceX’s recent Starship test flights.
The Starlink network surpassed 7 million global subscribers in August, primarily beaming Internet connectivity to homes and businesses. SpaceX is now aggressively pushing to broaden its service direct to smartphones.
The first two Starlink prototypes, named Tintin A and Tintin B, launched in 2018 as pathfinders. SpaceX began launching Starlink satellites with a radically different design in 2019, initially flying 60 satellites at a time. The number of spacecraft per launch has gone down as the satellites grew larger and more capable, with the Falcon 9’s capacity now maxed out at 28 satellites per flight.
SpaceX’s launch director nodded at the moment the Falcon 9 took off from California Sunday: “From Tintin to 10,000. Go Starlink, go Falcon, go SpaceX.”
A little more than an hour later, SpaceX confirmed the successful deployment of the rocket’s 28 satellites about 160 miles (260 kilometers) above the Earth. They were expected to unfurl their solar arrays and activate their plasma engines to begin climbing to their operational altitude of 332 miles (535 kilometers).
By the numbers
SpaceX is decommissioning aging and obsolete Starlink satellites as the company adds to the fleet. The retired satellites reenter the atmosphere, where they’re designed to burn up without any debris reaching the ground. Taking into account all the reentries, here are McDowell’s numbers for the Starlink fleet as it stands Monday, October 20:
- 8,680 total Starlink satellites in orbit
- 8,664 functioning Starlink satellites in orbit (including newly launched satellites not yet operational)
- 7,448 Starlink satellites in operational orbit
This represents roughly two-thirds of all functioning satellites in orbit today, but it’s difficult to know the exact percentage. It’s not easy to obtain a precise number of all active satellites. The number changes not just with every launch, but with every spacecraft that’s retired, something many satellite operators don’t announce publicly.
Most of the more than 47,000 objects tracked in orbit by US Space Command are dead satellites, abandoned rockets, or debris, but the US military doesn’t publicly differentiate between inert objects and active spacecraft. The European Space Agency estimates there are now roughly 12,500 functioning satellites in orbit. This means SpaceX owns and operates up to 70 percent of all the active satellites in orbit today.
SpaceX’s current generation of Starlink satellites, called the V2 Mini, have solar arrays spanning 100 feet (30 meters) tip to tip. The next iteration of the Starlink design, known as V3, will be too large to fit on the Falcon 9 rocket. Instead, it will launch about 60 at a time on SpaceX’s new Starship rocket, perhaps starting sometime next year.
Another reuse record
Sunday’s SpaceX launches weren’t just noteworthy for Starlink. The first of the two missions, departing from Florida’s Space Coast, marked the 31st launch of the company’s most-flown Falcon 9 booster. The rocket landed on SpaceX’s recovery ship in the Atlantic Ocean to be returned to Florida for a 32nd flight.
Several more rockets in SpaceX’s inventory are nearing their 30th launch. In all, SpaceX has more than 20 Falcon 9 boosters in its fleet on the East Coast and the West Coast. SpaceX engineers are now certifying the Falcon 9 boosters for up to 40 flights apiece.
The season of records isn’t over. SpaceX is expected to set another one later this week. The company’s launch log for 2025 currently stands at 132 Falcon 9 missions, tying the total number of Falcon 9 flights last year. SpaceX also launched two flights of the more powerful Falcon Heavy in 2024, bringing the 2024 mark to 134 missions by the Falcon rocket family.
That currently stands as the most launches by any single rocket family in a calendar year. SpaceX’s schedule for the coming days suggests the company is likely to break its own record sometime this weekend.
Should You Upgrade to a Nintendo Switch 2 to Play Pokémon Legends: Z-A?