Elon Musk’s company conducted two more Falcon 9 missions and launched a total of 10,000 Starlink launches, while bringing the number of rocket launches in 2025 to 132: this is equal to last year’s maximum.
Elon Musk’s company conducted two more Falcon 9 missions and launched a total of 10,000 Starlink launches, while bringing the number of rocket launches in 2025 to 132: this is equal to last year’s maximum.
As The Verge reports, on Sunday SpaceX added 56 satellites and crossed a symbolic milestone. Of the total, about 8,608 devices remain active (as estimated by astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell), the rest have already been decommissioned or deorbited in a controlled manner. The typical Starlink life cycle is about five years: after the end of the resource, the satellites are deliberately lowered into the dense layers of the atmosphere to burn up.
The number of launches has been increasing since 2018, when SpaceX tested the first prototypes, and commercial services appeared in 2021. Regulatory permits currently cover up to 12,000 devices, but the company plans to have more than 30,000 for global internet access with low signal latency. The record flight intensity is supported by the deep reusability of the Falcon 9: individual boosters have already completed three dozen missions, reducing the cost of each launch.
At the same time, risks are growing: general «noise» of near-Earth space, burden on space object tracking services, impact on astronomical observations. Competitors are also forming their own «megaconstellations» — Amazon with Project Kuiper, European initiatives like IRIS², state programs in China. Against this background, SpaceX insists on a policy of controlled docking and automatic collision avoidance, as well as the use of dark coatings and «sun-shielding» visors to reduce glare.
For users, the immediate practical effects will be denser coverage, more stable speeds, and lower latency in regions where terrestrial infrastructure is weak or destroyed. Expansion of the terrestrial fleet of stations, airline and maritime carrier connectivity, and integration with mobile networks for direct connection from smartphones should be the next phase of service revenue growth.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how Polish President Karol Nawrocki signed a law that continues funding for Starlink subscriptions for Ukraine. This guarantees the operation of satellite Internet in hospitals, schools, critical infrastructure facilities, and for units on the front lines.
