7 hours ago 2

SpaceX aces 3rd launch in 13 hours, sending 23 Starlink satellites to orbit (video)

SpaceX just pulled off a spaceflight tripleheader.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 of the company's Starlink internet satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today (March 15) at 7:35 a.m. EDT (1135 GMT).

It was SpaceX's third launch in a 13-hour span, as the company noted via X this morning.

a black and white rocket launches into an early morning sky

The rocket flurry began at 7:03 p.m. EDT (2303 GMT) on Friday (March 14), when a Falcon 9 launched the Crew-10 astronaut mission toward the International Space Station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, which is next door to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The four-person Crew-10 is on track to dock with the orbiting lab tonight around 11:30 p.m. EDT (0330 GMT on March 16); you can watch that rendezvous live here at Space.com.

Then, early this morning, the company launched 74 payloads to orbit from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on a rideshare mission called Transporter 13. That flight featured a round-number milestone for SpaceX — the 400th landing to date of a Falcon 9 first stage.

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

There was also a successful touchdown on this morning's Starlink launch, the 18th to date for this particular Falcon 9 booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.

Falcon 9 completes three missions in ~13 hours, launching four astronauts to the @space_station, 74 rideshare payloads to orbit, and adding 23 @Starlink satellites to the constellation pic.twitter.com/VgaUHu7kZXMarch 15, 2025

SpaceX has now launched 31 Falcon 9 missions in 2025. About two-thirds of them have been devoted to building out the Starlink network in low Earth orbit, by far the biggest satellite constellation ever assembled.

SpaceX has lofted nearly 8,100 Starlink spacecraft to date, 7,061 of which are operational today, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

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.

Read Entire Article