SpaceX launches 29 more Starlink satellites
SpaceX today successfully placed another 29 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The first stage (B1069) completed its 31st flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic, 63 days after its previous flight. It remains in 6th place in the rankings of the most reused launch vehicles:
39 Discovery space shuttle
34 Falcon 9 booster B1067
33 Atlantis space shuttle
32 Falcon 9 booster B1071
32 Falcon 9 booster B1063
31 Falcon 9 booster B1069
28 Columbia space shuttle
27 Falcon 9 booster B1077
27 Falcon 9 booster B1078
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
53 SpaceX
23 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
For the third straight year SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, 53 to 44.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
SpaceX today successfully placed another 29 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The first stage (B1069) completed its 31st flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic, 63 days after its previous flight. It remains in 6th place in the rankings of the most reused launch vehicles:
39 Discovery space shuttle
34 Falcon 9 booster B1067
33 Atlantis space shuttle
32 Falcon 9 booster B1071
32 Falcon 9 booster B1063
31 Falcon 9 booster B1069
28 Columbia space shuttle
27 Falcon 9 booster B1077
27 Falcon 9 booster B1078
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
53 SpaceX
23 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
For the third straight year SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, 53 to 44.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News


I was thinking the other day about comments here and there leaning towards SpaceX Falcon 9 as possibly boring, or that it has no future. I then thought about those wonderful videos of the thousands of SpaceX employees cheering during launches and landings. I imagine the Falcon 9 program as the perfect apprenticeship program for all kinds of young engineers and future rocket scientists. How many newer SpaceX staff are trained by some of the incredibly successful veterans?
Yes, someday there will be other rocket companies that become consistent with larger scale, dependable, reusable rockets.
Right now, SpaceX’s future is so bright, they have to wear shades.
Just because Conestoga wagons (Falcon 9s) were supplanted by railroads (Starships) doesn’t mean those wagons didn’t make a big contribution in their time. Falcon 9’s place in history is secure.