SpaceX flies its 700th Falcon 9 as it prepares to wind down the rocket

SpaceX launched its 700th Falcon 9 rocket on the evening of Friday, October 30, a milestone for the vehicle that transformed the economics of spaceflight, just as the company begins to phase it out.

The rocket lifted off at 9:04pm Pacific time from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, carrying 27 Starlink internet satellites into low Earth orbit. It was SpaceX's 11th and final orbital launch of October.

A reused booster, again

The first-stage booster, known as B1093, was flying for the 18th time. It had previously launched a rideshare mission, two missions for the US Space Development Agency and 14 batches of Starlink satellites. About eight and a half minutes after liftoff it landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean, the 675th landing of a Falcon booster.

Reusability is what made Falcon 9 so influential. Before SpaceX began landing and reflying boosters in the mid-2010s, rockets were thrown away after each launch. Reuse dramatically cut costs and let SpaceX fly far more often than any rival, carrying most of the world's satellites to orbit, along with NASA astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station.

Winding down

Despite the milestone, Falcon 9's days are numbered. NASA and others have said SpaceX plans to stop offering Falcon 9 for commercial and government missions within the next few years.

The shift is already visible. SpaceX stopped flying Starlink missions on Falcon 9 from Florida in August, and its launch rate has eased from a peak of 171 orbital launches in a 365-day period, reached in December 2025, to below 150 for the first time since July 2025.

The Starship era

SpaceX is betting its future on Starship, the giant, fully reusable rocket it is developing in Texas. The company expects regular orbital Starship missions to begin in 2027.

"We expect Starship to fly weekly at some point in the first half next year," Elon Musk said on SpaceX's third-quarter earnings call, adding that the cadence would rise to twice weekly or more by the end of 2027. "The rate at which we launch Starship will increase dramatically as we solve rapid and complete reusability," he said.

The next test, Starship Flight 15, is planned for mid-November and is expected to attempt to catch the rocket's upper stage, a key step towards making the whole vehicle reusable.