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SpaceX sent yet another batch of its Starlink internet satellites skyward today (Aug. 11).<\/p>\n
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 11:58 a.m. EDT (1558 GMT), carrying 29 of the broadband spacecraft toward low Earth orbit (LEO).<\/p>\n
About 8.5 minutes later, the rocket's first stage made a pinpoint landing in the Atlantic Ocean atop the SpaceX droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas." It was the 18th flight for this particular booster, which is designated B1085.<\/p>\n
The Falcon 9's first stage is seen just after its drone-ship landing on Aug. 11, 2026. | Credit: SpaceX<\/p>\n
Though more than half its liftoffs have been Starlink flights, B1085 also has some astronaut missions under its belt. The booster lofted SpaceX's Crew-9 flight to the International Space Station in September 2024, and it launched the Fram2 mission around Earth's poles six months later.<\/p>\n
The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, continued hauling the 29 Starlink satellites to LEO today. They'll be deployed there 64 minutes after liftoff, if all goes to plan.<\/p>\n
Crew-9 | RRT-1 | Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1 | Fram2 | SXM-10 | MTG-S1 | EchoStar XXV | SXM-11 | 9 Starlink missions<\/p>\n
Today's liftoff was the 93rd Falcon 9 launch of the year already. Seventy-two of those missions have been devoted to building out Starlink, the largest satellite constellation ever assembled.<\/p>\n
Starlink currently consists of more than 10,900 active satellites, according to astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell. But SpaceX has even bigger megaconstellations in mind: Eventually, the company wants to operate 100,000 of its bigger, more capable Starlink V3 satellites, and Elon Musk has stated an ambition to launch a million AI data center satellites to Earth orbit as well.<\/p>\n