SpaceX marked a new cadence milestone on Aug. 18 when a Falcon 9 lifted 24 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 9:26 a.m. PDT, becoming the company’s 100th Falcon 9 flight of 2025. The booster, B1088, flew for the ninth time and landed on the droneship “Of Course I Still Love You,” while the second stage deployed the payload about an hour later. The launch, designated Starlink Group 17-5, was SpaceX’s 72nd Starlink mission this year and pushed the 2025 total to roughly 1,786 satellites placed in orbit. Reaching 100 Falcon 9 missions in just eight months accelerates a pace that saw the company hit the same mark in October last year and finish 2023 with 96 liftoffs. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said the fleet has delivered about 1,800 tons of payload so far in 2025, representing more than 90 percent of all mass sent to orbit worldwide. Attention now turns to the South Texas launch site, where the FAA has closed its inquiry into May’s Starship Flight 9 mishap and cleared the way for Starship Flight 10. SpaceX plans to launch Super Heavy Booster 16 and Ship 37 during a window opening Aug. 24 at 6:30 p.m. CT. The uncrewed test will trial a larger three-fin grid-fin configuration, demonstrate a cargo-door opening, attempt an in-space Raptor engine relight, and target separate splashdowns for the booster in the Gulf of Mexico and for the upper stage in the Indian Ocean. Flight 10 is the penultimate mission before a broader redesign of the 120-meter-tall launch system.