For the sixth year in a row, SpaceX is on course to set a new annual launch record for the Falcon 9 rocket, highlighting SpaceX’s increasing dominance in orbital launch activity, as well as the success of its reusable booster system in enabling frequent, cost-effective flights.
The Elon Musk-led spaceflight company is set to complete 159 Falcon 9 launches by the end of the year, beating last year’s annual tally of 132 — 134 if you count the two Falcon Heavy launches, each of which used three Falcon 9 boosters. While some of the launches have involved satellite deployments for governments and organizations, the vast majority of the missions have sent batches of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites to orbit.
When you think back to 2015 when SpaceX completed a mere 10 Falcon 9 missions, the uptick in the company’s launch frequency is pretty astonishing.
It’s been able to boost its launch activities thanks for the most part to the reliability of its workhorse rocket, and the company’s ability to land the first-stage booster after launch, allowing it to reuse each one for multiple missions.
SpaceX’s main competitors include United Launch Alliance and Rocket Lab, but neither company has come close to the number of launches achieved by SpaceX in 2025.
One to watch is Blue Origin, a spaceflight company started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. While mainly known for its single-stage sub-orbital New Shepard rocket that’s been taking paying passengers on rides to the edge of space since 2021, the company is now focusing on the development of its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket, which in terms of thrust power sits above the Falcon 9 though below the Falcon Heavy.
The New Glenn took its first flight in January 2025, and its second just last month, deploying two Mars satellites for NASA.
Blue Origin failed to land the first-stage booster in during its maiden mission in January, but succeeded last month, mirroring SpaceX’s landing of the Falcon 9 booster.
SpaceX’s busiest year to date has run alongside its development of the Starship, its next-generation megarocket that’s destined for crew and cargo missions to the moon, and possibly to Mars, too.
The Starship took its first test flight in 2023 and has since flown a further 10 times. Its next test flight is expected to take place early next year.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.