SpaceX reached its 100th orbital launch of 2026 in the early hours of August 22, when a Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base carrying 27 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. It is the third year running that Elon Musk's launcher has hit triple-digit orbital missions.
A launch every 60 hours
The Vandenberg flight was the 99th Falcon 9 mission of the year and the 100th Falcon-family launch when Falcon Heavy is included. SpaceX has averaged one launch roughly every 60 hours since January and briefly compressed its pad turnaround to a record 38.5 minutes on August 15 when it flew back-to-back missions for Globalstar and the U.S. Space Force. Musk confirmed on X that the company now has more than 11,000 Starlink satellites in orbit.
Booster reuse hits a new record
Days after the 100-launch mark, a follow-on Cape Canaveral flight sent 29 more Starlinks up on booster B1067, its 37th flight, extending the reuse record for any orbital-class rocket. The booster program is the linchpin of SpaceX's economics: with turnaround shrinking to weeks and Starship coming online for larger V3 satellites, the company is compressing the cost of delivering a kilogram to orbit at a pace no rival can currently match.
What the milestone means for Starlink
The blistering cadence is what keeps Starlink growing. The constellation now serves paying customers in more than 100 countries, and Musk's target of "several million" units of Starlink Direct-to-Cell hardware relies on both densifying the shell and swapping out early-generation birds. SpaceX has already flown 100 of a self-imposed 170-launch goal for 2026, keeping the constellation on course for continuous replenishment.
For related SpaceX and space-industry stories, see Xanadu's CAD $195M quantum funding and our NVIDIA Cosmos world models coverage.
Reporting based on coverage from Spaceflight Now, Space.com, and Starlust.