Falcon 9 completes 116th flight of 2026 from California coast
SpaceX deployed 27 Starlink satellites on Oct. 23, ending an 11-day pause as launch frequency drops from the previous record year.
By Rebecca Kaminski ·
SpaceX has executed 116 Falcon 9 launches in 2026, a pace that lags well behind the record-setting 165 flights completed in 2025. The company launched its 116th mission of the year on Oct. 23 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The rocket carried 27 Starlink Group 15-15 satellites into orbit. Liftoff occurred at 6:48 p.m. EDT from Pad 4E. The first stage booster, designated B1063, separated from the upper stage approximately 2.5 minutes after launch. It landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You roughly eight minutes into the mission, marking its 36th flight and landing.
B1063 is a veteran booster that also carried NASA’s DART asteroid deflection mission in November 2021. The upper stage performed its second burn 45 minutes after liftoff. SpaceX began deploying the satellite stack into low Earth orbit 62 minutes after the initial launch.
This deployment adds to a constellation that now includes more than 11,000 active Starlink spacecraft. The launch frequency has declined as SpaceX shifts engineering focus toward Starship. Starship is designed for full reusability and features a payload bay large enough for Version 3 Starlink satellites, which do not fit inside the Falcon 9 fairing.
SpaceX intends to phase out both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy once Starship enters operational flight. The transition is already evident in launch patterns. The 100th Falcon 9 launch of 2026, Starlink 10-49, was the final Starlink mission to fly from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Similar changes are expected for West Coast launches. At peak operations, Starlink missions flew every two to three days. The launch preceding Oct. 23 occurred 11 days earlier, and that previous flight was the first in a span of more than three weeks.
About three-quarters of Falcon 9 launches in 2026 have dedicated to Starlink missions. If the current rate holds, the rocket will complete just under 150 missions by the end of the year, cementing 2025 as the vehicle’s busiest year.
Source: Space.com
