Two Falcon 9 rockets lifted off from spaceports in Florida and California on Sunday afternoon, adding 56 more satellites to SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network.
The second of these two launches—originating from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California—propelled SpaceX’s Starlink program past a notable milestone. With the satellites added to the constellation Sunday, the company has delivered more than 10,000 mass-produced Starlink spacecraft to low-Earth orbit.
The exact figure stands at 10,006 satellites, according to a tabulation by Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist who expertly tracks comings and goings between Earth and space. This number includes dozens of Starlink demo satellites, but not the dummy spacecraft carried on SpaceX’s recent Starship test flights.
The Starlink network surpassed 7 million global subscribers in August, primarily beaming Internet connectivity to homes and businesses. SpaceX is now aggressively pushing to broaden its service direct to smartphones.
The first two Starlink prototypes, named Tintin A and Tintin B, launched in 2018 as pathfinders. SpaceX began launching Starlink satellites with a radically different design in 2019, initially flying 60 satellites at a time. The number of spacecraft per launch has gone down as the satellites grew larger and more capable, with the Falcon 9’s capacity now maxed out at 28 satellites per flight.
The first of two Falcon 9 launches Sunday, each carrying 28 Starlink satellites.
Credit:
SpaceX
SpaceX’s launch director nodded at the moment the Falcon 9 took off from California Sunday: “From Tintin to 10,000. Go Starlink, go Falcon, go SpaceX.”
A little more than an hour later, SpaceX confirmed the successful deployment of the rocket’s 28 satellites about 160 miles (260 kilometers) above the Earth. They were expected to unfurl their solar arrays and activate their plasma engines to begin climbing to their operational altitude of 332 miles (535 kilometers).
By the numbers
SpaceX is decommissioning aging and obsolete Starlink satellites as the company adds to the fleet. The retired satellites reenter the atmosphere, where they’re designed to burn up without any debris reaching the ground. Taking into account all the reentries, here are McDowell’s numbers for the Starlink fleet as it stands Monday, October 20:
- 8,680 total Starlink satellites in orbit
- 8,664 functioning Starlink satellites in orbit (including newly launched satellites not yet operational)
- 7,448 Starlink satellites in operational orbit
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