Halloween launch: Falcon 9 lofts 27 Starlink satellites, booster flies for 18th time
SpaceX flew its final orbital mission of October from California. The first stage, on its 18th flight, landed on a droneship in the Pacific Ocean.
Archive image · Photo: U.S. Space Force photo by 2nd Lt. Andrew Taller / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 0404 GMT on Saturday carrying 27 Starlink satellites, which the upper stage deployed about 62 minutes after launch. First-stage booster B1093, flying for the 18th time, landed about eight and a half minutes after liftoff on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You.
According to Space.com, it was the 118th Falcon 9 flight of 2026, more than 70% of which have supported Starlink. The network now has more than 11,000 satellites. Spaceflight Now said it was SpaceX's 11th and final orbital launch of October.
The launch pace has eased slightly: in late October SpaceX fell below 150 orbital launches in a 365-day period for the first time since July 2025, after peaking at 171 in December 2025. CEO Elon Musk expects Starship to fly "weekly at some point in the first half next year," Spaceflight Now reported.