SpaceX achieved another major milestone in reusable spaceflight on Wednesday evening when it launched its 350th mission, this time using a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket booster. The Starlink 9-14 mission also marked the 300th successful booster landing the company has recorded to date, a testament to its continuous improvement of reusable rockets.
The Starlink 9-14 mission lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 7:05 p.m. PST (10:05 p.m. EST) from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E). The launch carried 20 Starlink V2 Mini satellites, including 13 equipped with Direct to Cell (DTC) capabilities, which will help improve cellular connectivity in remote areas. This brings the total number of DTC-enabled Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX to 349 since the first DTC launch on January 2.
But in a rare departure from its norm, SpaceX did not immediately provide a live-stream link for the mission. While the company published the mission details on its website, it did not issue an announcement or a link to the webcast, as it did with the concurrent launch of SiriusXM’s SXM-9 satellite, which had an advertised Livestream. In fact, SpaceX has kept the public in the dark about the live streams for several recent missions, including Starlink 9-13 and NROL-126 from Vandenberg. During both of those launches, it wasn’t until after the rocket launched that the live stream finally appeared. That was followed by the Starlink 9-14 launch, where its stream appeared roughly 44 seconds after liftoff.
The Falcon 9 booster that undertook this mission, B1081, launched for its 12th time. This booster had supported high-profile missions to date – two missions to the International Space Station, Crew-7 and CRS-29, two climate-monitoring satellites, PACE and EarthCARE, and five prior Starlink missions. B1081 successfully landed on the SpaceX droneship ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ stationed in the Pacific Ocean after completing its mission. This marked the 300th successful landing of a Falcon 9 booster, adding to the growing track record of successful recoveries and reusability at SpaceX.
The launch of the Starlink 9-14 mission by SpaceX was also a huge step toward global connectivity, especially in the most remote areas. In November, SpaceX was granted approval by the FCC to offer cellular service through its Starlink satellites, in collaboration with T-Mobile. The approval allows SpaceX to utilize up to 7,500 second-generation Starlink satellites operating in the V-band frequency, positioned at a lower altitude. The grant was expected to allow SpaceX to deliver lower-latency satellite services, especially in hard-to-reach rural and remote areas currently without wireless service.
This is a major milestone for SpaceX as it continues to push the boundaries of spaceflight reusability and connectivity, solidifying its position as a leader in space exploration and commercial satellite services, with significant implications for global communications.
