SpaceX launches 10,000th Starlink satellite, with no signs of slowing down

Two Falcon 9 rockets blasted off Sunday afternoon from spaceports in Florida and California, adding 56 more satellites to SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network.

The second of these two launches— from Vandenberg Space Base, California—has propelled SpaceX’s Starlink program past a notable milestone. With the satellites added to the constellation on Sunday, the company has delivered more than 10,000 mass-produced Starlink spacecraft into low Earth orbit.

The exact figure is 10,006 satellites, according to a chart by Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist who expertly tracks the comings and goings between Earth and space. That number includes dozens of Starlink demonstration satellites, but not the dummy spacecraft carried on SpaceX’s recent Starship test flights.

The Starlink network surpassed 7 million subscribers worldwide in August, primarily beaming internet connectivity to homes and businesses. SpaceX is now working to expand its service directly to smartphones.

The first two Starlink prototypes, named Tintin A and Tintin B, were launched in 2018 as scouts. 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 decreased as satellites have become larger and more capable, with Falcon 9 capacity now maxing out at 28 satellites per flight.

SpaceX’s launch director nodded as the Falcon 9 lifted off from California on Sunday: “From Tintin to 10,000. Go Starlink, go Falcon, go SpaceX.”

Just over an hour later, SpaceX confirmed the successful deployment of the rocket’s 28 satellites approximately 160 miles above Earth. They needed to deploy their solar panels 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 its fleet. The removed satellites re-enter the atmosphere, where they are designed to burn up without any debris reaching the ground. Taking into account all receipts, here are McDowell’s figures for the Starlink fleet as it stands on Monday October 20:

• 8,680 Starlink satellites in total in orbit
• 8,664 functional Starlink satellites in orbit (including recently launched satellites that are not yet operational)
• 7,448 Starlink satellites in operational orbit