SpaceX launches 600th rocket
February 17, 2026
A week ago, Europe’s Arianespace launched its first rocket for 2026 as part of an expected cadence of around six flights this year.
Meanwhile, on Valentine’s Day, SpaceX launched its 600th Falcon 9 rocket from its West Coast launch site at Vandenburg Space Force Base and took a batch of 24 Starlink satellites onto their polar orbits.
A few hours prior, a Falcon had taken astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft named Freedom arrived at the ISS at 3:15 p.m. EST (2015 UTC). The orbital arrival of three astronauts and one cosmonaut came roughly 34 hours after launching from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The Vandenburg launch resulted in Booster B1081 landed on the waiting drone barge (‘Of course I still love you‘). This was the 178th landing in this drone vessel and the 571st booster landing to date for SpaceX.
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