SpaceX marked its 100th Falcon 9 launch of 2026 on Tuesday, August 25, setting a new rocket-reuse record with booster B1067 flying its 37th mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to deploy 29 Starlink internet satellites into low Earth orbit.
SpaceX reached a major milestone in its launch cadence early Tuesday morning from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 29 Starlink internet satellites lifted off at 5:33 a.m. EDT (0933 GMT), marking the 100th Falcon 9 flight of 2026.
The flight pushed the boundaries of orbital vehicle longevity. The rocket’s first-stage booster, designated B1067, completed its record-breaking 37th mission. First introduced into service in June 2021, the booster previously supported notable flights including CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, O3B mPOWER, PSN SATRIA, Telkomsat Marah Putih 2, Galileo L13, Koreasat-6A, and 25 Starlink missions.
Booster B1067 Sets Flight Record and Lands on Drone Ship
Extensive first-stage reuse remains the core engineering strategy behind the Falcon 9’s dominance in commercial launch, making the rockets cheaper and more efficient to fly than their competitors. About 8.5 minutes after lifting off from Florida, booster B1067 descended to touch down on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas
stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, the rocket’s upper stage continued on to deliver its 29 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, deploying them there 61.5 minutes after launch.
The flight brings the company’s elite fleet of high-flight boosters into sharper focus. SpaceX currently operates six Falcon 9 boosters that have flown at least 30 missions, led by B1067. The others include B1077 and B1078 with 30 flights, B1069 with 32, B1063 with 34, and B1071 with 35.
Global Launch Demands and Starlink Constellation Expansion
Tuesday’s liftoff was the 77th of 2026 devoted to building out Starlink. The network now encompasses more than 11,000 operational spacecraft in orbit, making it by far the largest satellite constellation ever assembled, and that number is growing all the time.
The Falcon 9 continues to operate as the busiest rocket in operation today. Last year, the rocket flew 165 missions—more than all of the world’s other orbital rockets combined—while achieving a 100 percent fully successful flight rate. While international competitors are racing to catch up and some are making strides—such as two different Chinese rockets acing landings during orbital missions in the past six weeks—neither of those newcomers has made it back to the pad for a second flight. SpaceX, meanwhile, is so far the only one to manage extensive first-stage reuse.
Transition from Florida Falcon 9 Flights to Starship Operations
Tuesday’s operation marks a major operational turning point for the company’s Florida launch infrastructure. Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX vice president of launch operations, confirmed in a social media post Tuesday that the flight is expected to be the final Falcon 9 launch from Florida.
“From here on, Starlink missions out of Florida will fly on Starship,”
Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX vice president of launch operations
While Florida shifts toward next-generation architecture, West Coast operations will maintain their current tempo. The West Coast team will continue regularly launching Starlink from Vandenberg,
Dontchev wrote, referring to Vandenberg Base in California.
The company’s next-gen megarocket, Starship, is designed to be completely and rapidly reusable, with each vehicle capable of flying multiple times per day, according to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. (Unlike the fully reusable Starship design, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy have expendable upper stages.)
“Once Starship is flying reliably several times a week, it makes sense to shift … production resources to Starship to get launch rate to several times per day,”
Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO
Falcon 9 rockets first launched in 2010, and there have been nearly 700 launches since. Alongside its workhorse fleet, SpaceX has flown one Falcon Heavy mission and two suborbital Starship test flights this year. Starship will try to go orbital for the first time on its next liftoff, which is expected in early to mid-September.
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