SpaceX launches Starlink satellites on 400th successful Falcon 9 flight (video, photos)

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SpaceX just hit another milestone.

SpaceX just notched a big spaceflight milestone.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 24 of the company's Starlink satellites lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday (Nov. 26) at 11:41 p.m. EST (0441 GMT on Wednesday, Nov. 27).

The satellites were deployed into low Earth orbit about 65 minutes later as planned. It was the 400th successful mission for the workhorse rocket, which debuted in 2010, SpaceX announced via X on Wednesday (Nov. 27).

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 24 Starlink internet satellites to orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 26, 2024. It was the 400th successful Falcon 9 mission. (Image credit: SpaceX)

The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth safely, touching down on the droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" in the Atlantic Ocean about eight minutes after liftoff.

It was the 375th landing for a Falcon first stage overall, SpaceX said via X, and the 15th for this particular booster, according to a company mission description. Eleven of its 15 flights to date have been Starlink missions.

The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket comes down for a landing on the deck of a drone ship shortly after launching 24 of the company’s Starlink internet satellites to orbit on Nov. 26, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX)
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SpaceX has now launched 117 Falcon 9 missions so far in 2024, and 81 of them have been devoted to building out the Starlink network. Five of those Starlink flights have occurred in the past eight days.

The Starlink megaconstellation — the biggest ever assembled — currently consists of nearly 6,700 active spacecraft, according to satellite tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 1 a.m. ET on Nov. 27 with news of successful launch, rocket landing and satellite deployment, then again at 11:45 a.m. ET with the information that this was the 400th successful Falcon 9 mission.

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Mike Wall
Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

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.