SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 21 Starlink satellites on record-setting 26th flight (video, photos)

SpaceX has broken its rocket-reuse record yet again.

A Falcon 9 rocket launched 21 of the company’s Starlink broadband satellites to orbit early this morning (Feb. 15), rising off a pad at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1:14 a.m. EST (0614 GMT).

It was the 26th liftoff for the rocket’s first stage, breaking a reuse mark that SpaceX set just last month. Fifteen of those 26 missions have sent Starlink satellites skyward, according to a company mission description.

The booster came back to Earth as planned today, touching down on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean about eight minutes after liftoff.

“Falcon 9 lands on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, completing the first 26th launch and landing of an orbital class rocket,” SpaceX wrote in a post on X this morning that shared video of the descent and landing.

The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, deployed the 21 Starlink satelites, 13 of which have direct-to-cell capability, into low Earth orbit about 65 minutes after launch as planned.

Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky

This morning’s launch was the 20th Falcon 9 liftoff of the year, and the 14th devoted to building out the Starlink broadband constellation. Starlink is by far the largest spacecraft network ever assembled; it currently consists of nearly 7,000 operational satellites.

This same Falcon 9 first stage last flew just over a month ago, on Jan. 10. That launch, the booster’s 25th, was also a Starlink mission.

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, “Out There,” was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.