SpaceX notched its 100th Falcon 9 mission of the year on 18 Aug, lifting 24 Starlink broadband satellites (Group 17-5) from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 9:26 a.m. PDT (16:26 UTC). The flight carried the total number of active Starlink spacecraft to about 8,100, deepening the company’s global internet constellation. The mission employed first-stage booster B1088 on its ninth flight; the stage landed on the Pacific droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” roughly eight minutes after liftoff. Reuse of the booster kept turnaround times low and contributed to SpaceX’s rapid launch cadence. With 100 Falcon 9 launches completed in less than eight months—an average of one every 2.3 days—SpaceX says it has delivered roughly 1,800 tons of payload to orbit, accounting for more than 90 percent of all mass launched from Earth so far in 2025. The record-setting cadence is set to continue: the company is targeting 24 Aug for both its 33rd Dragon cargo run to the International Space Station and the 10th test flight of its next-generation Starship system from South Texas.