SpaceX Launches 29 Starlink Satellites on Falcon 9's 35th Flight
Updated
Updated · Space.com · Jul 11
SpaceX Launches 29 Starlink Satellites on Falcon 9's 35th Flight
3 articles · Updated · Space.com · Jul 11
Summary
B1071 lifted off from Vandenberg at 0301 GMT carrying 29 Starlink satellites, marking the booster’s 35th mission and SpaceX’s 81st Falcon 9 launch of 2026.
The first stage landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You about 8.5 minutes after launch, while the upper stage was set to deploy the payload in low Earth orbit roughly 62 minutes after liftoff.
That 35-flight milestone puts B1071 one mission shy of SpaceX’s reuse record of 36, set only days earlier by booster B1067 on another Starlink launch.
Starlink now has more than 10,700 active satellites, and SpaceX has recently sought approval to eventually operate as many as 100,000 in low Earth orbit.
About 80% of Falcon 9 missions this year have carried Starlink payloads, underscoring how central the constellation remains to SpaceX’s launch cadence.