West Coast Falcon 9 launches 27 satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink internet service

SpaceX closed out May with its 16th Falcon 9 launch of the month. The Saturday afternoon launch from the company’s West Coast launch pad carried 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to a low Earth orbit.

Liftoff of the Starlink 11-18 mission from a foggy Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base occurred at 1:10 p.m. PDT (4:10 p.m. EDT, 2010 UTC).

The mission employed first stage booster B1071, which was making its 25th flight. Previously this booster flew three rideshare missions, five National Reconnaissance Office missions, and 14 times with batches of Starlink satellites.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1071 landed on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ It was the 133rd booster landing on this vessel and the 455th Falcon 9 landing overall.

With the successful liftoff, SpaceX tied the monthly launch record set by the company in November 2024, which saw 16 Falcon 9 launches.

During a pre-launch media teleconference on Wednesday for the GPS III-7 Space Vehicle 08 mission, Anne Mason, SpaceX’s director of National Security Space Launch, said SpaceX is still aiming to launch at least 170 Falcon launches in 2025.

That would be a notable jump from the record 132 missions accomplished in 2024. The company has now launched 144 Falcon missions in the last 365 days.

“I always find it amazing that this cadence has become somewhat normal,” Mason said. “But if we look back just five years ago, in 2020, when we launched roughly 25 times, which is still a healthy rate at twice a month, and now launching on average every two to three days, I think this demonstrates how Falcon’s reusability and reliability, plus the hard work and dedicate of the SpaceX team has been critical to supporting assured access to space.”

In order to meet this cadence, Mason said SpaceX has a Falcon second stage coming through production every two-and-a-half days. The company has launched 143 Falcon missions in the last 365 days.

SpaceX is also seeking to ramp up its cadence through the proposed acquisition of Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Public review of the proposal runs through July 7 with the Department of the Air Force expected to issue its Final Environmental Impact Statement this Fall.