**SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rocket Launched for 125th Time This Year**
*By Dwaipayan Roy | Oct 04, 2025, 10:18 AM*
SpaceX has reached a remarkable milestone by launching its Falcon 9 rocket for the 125th time in 2025. The latest mission took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California yesterday at 10:06 AM EDT (7:36 PM IST).
The Falcon 9 carried a payload of 28 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO), marking a significant advancement in SpaceX’s ongoing efforts to expand its satellite internet constellation.
### Successful Landing of the First Stage Booster
The rocket’s first stage booster successfully returned to Earth, landing on SpaceX’s droneship, *Of Course I Still Love You*, stationed in the Pacific Ocean. This booster, designated B1097, completed its second mission with this flight. Its previous launch also involved deploying Starlink satellites, as noted in SpaceX’s mission description.
### Expanding the Satellite Constellation
More than 70% of Falcon 9 launches in 2025 have been devoted to growing the Starlink constellation, which is now the largest satellite network ever assembled. Currently, over 8,500 active Starlink satellites orbit the Earth.
According to the European Space Agency, there are approximately 12,500 operational satellites of any kind in orbit today. This means that two out of every three functional spacecraft currently in space are Starlink satellites—a proportion that continues to increase.
SpaceX’s aggressive deployment of Starlink satellites underscores the company’s commitment to enhancing global satellite internet coverage and reshaping space infrastructure for the future.
https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/science/new-milestone-for-spacex-s-falcon-9-rocket/story
