Falcon 9 flies Starlink 17-45 on a 25th-flight booster
SpaceX's 74th launch of the year adds 24 V2 Mini satellites from Vandenberg
Summary
Spacex launched 24 Starlink V2 Mini satellites on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, lifting off from SLC-4E at 0330 UTC on June 25. First stage B1081 flew for a 25th time and landed on the Pacific droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" about 8.5 minutes after launch, with the second stage deploying the satellites roughly an hour into flight. The mission was SpaceX's 74th Falcon 9 launch of 2026, part of the steady cadence that keeps thickening the low-Earth-orbit broadband network.
Why it matters
The relentless launch rate is the moat: each flight adds capacity and pushes Starlink further ahead of rival constellations on coverage and unit cost. Reusing a booster for a 25th time underlines how reuse economics underwrite a tempo competitors cannot yet match.
What to watch
- How high SpaceX pushes single-booster reuse counts.
- V2 Mini Optimized capacity gains versus earlier batches.
- Whether rival constellations close any of the cadence gap in 2026.