Washington, August 19 (QNA) - US company SpaceX launched 24 Starlink satellites into orbit.
The company said a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on a mission dubbed "Starlink Group 17-50", marking the rocket's 97th launch of the year.
It added that the rocket's first stage returned to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, landing on a SpaceX drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. The mission marked the booster's 12th flight, under the designation "B1097".
Starlink accounted for the bulk of SpaceX's missions this year, with 74 of the company's 100 missions thus far dedicated to expanding its satellite network, which has almost 11,000 operational satellites.
The milestone marks the third consecutive year that SpaceX has surpassed 100 missions in a single year, after conducting 138 missions in 2024 and 170 in 2025.
The company plans to significantly ramp up its launch cadence in the coming years as it prepares to use the fully reusable Starship vehicle for repeated launches.
The accelerating launch cadence reflects SpaceX's growing reliance on reusable rockets, along with the continued expansion of Starlink, one of the company's flagship space-communications projects. (QNA)