SpaceX Breaks Its Own Record: Two Falcon 9s in 38 Minutes
Elon Musk's company launched rockets from two different U.S. coasts, with one mission carrying a classified payload for the U.S. Space Force.
Elon Musk's company launched rockets from two different U.S. coasts, with one mission carrying a classified payload for the U.S. Space Force.
SpaceX set a new record in orbital launches on Saturday evening, lifting two Falcon 9 rockets just 38 minutes apart. This achievement is 27 minutes better than its previous best time, set on August 31, 2024.
Elon Musk's company continues to dominate the space industry, launching rockets far more frequently than its competitors. Its Starlink satellite internet network now counts nearly 11,000 satellites, and that number keeps growing.
The first launch took place from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 9:12 p.m. local time. The rocket delivered eight satellites destined for Globalstar, a telecommunications company based in Louisiana, into low Earth orbit (LEO).
According to a SpaceX post on social media, all eight spacecraft were successfully placed into orbit, with their deployment taking six minutes, starting 56.5 minutes after liftoff.
While the first rocket was racing toward orbit, the second lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 6:50 p.m. local time (9:50 p.m. EDT). That mission, designated USSF-366, was conducted for the U.S. Space Force and holds a classified status.
Very little is known about the USSF-366 mission. However, launch observers from the service NextSpaceflight.com drew several conclusions based on the limited information available.
"It is possible that this is a group of classified satellites in low Earth orbit for some U.S. government institution based on SpaceX's Starshield satellite platform, judging by the locations of the rocket stage drop zones, which fully match previous launches of Starlink Group 15 satellites," NextSpaceflight.com wrote in its mission description.
Starshield is a SpaceX project that uses modified versions of Starlink spacecraft for missions of significance to U.S. national security. The location and time of payload deployment into orbit by the rocket's upper stage were not disclosed, and SpaceX cut the live stream shortly after the first stage's return, which is standard practice for missions related to national security.
Both Saturday missions included successful landings of the rockets' first stages. The Falcon 9 first stage that flew for Globalstar returned and safely landed at Cape Canaveral about eight minutes after launch, marking its 14th flight.
The Falcon 9 first stage used for the USSF-366 mission landed on the autonomous drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Pacific Ocean about 8.5 minutes after launch. This rocket stage has now participated in a total of 18 missions.
Saturday's double launch brought the total number of Falcon 9 launches in 2026 to 96. Approximately 75 percent of those launches, the majority, were Starlink missions.
