SpaceX launched its 60th mission of the year on Wednesday, and it’s not done yet.
The California-based commercial spaceflight company launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 54 Starlink internet satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral in Florida at 4:34 a.m. ET on Wednesday, December 28.
Falcon 9 launches 54 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit; completes SpaceX’s 60th mission of 2022!pic.twitter.com/MIstToPIyL
— SpaceX (@SpaceX)August 20, 2025
As usual, SpaceX livestreamed the early stages of the mission. Here’s the Falcon 9 rocket lighting up Florida’s night sky as it leaves the launchpad:
Several minutes later, the rocket jettisoned the first-stage booster, which made its way back to Earth.
About eight minutes after launch, the first-stage booster made a perfect landing on a SpaceX droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. The booster will now be brought back to land, refurbished, and sent on another mission.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneshippic.twitter.com/hjvWIY9cZ3
The latest mission marked the 11th launch and landing for this particular Falcon 9 first-stage booster, which previously launched GPS III Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05,Inspiration4, Ax-1, Nilesat 301, and now six Starlink missions.
SpaceX still has one more mission scheduled for 2022, which will bring its total number of missions for the year to a record 61, almost double what it achieved in 2021.
This year’s missions used SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, except for one involving its more powerful Falcon Heavy vehicle in a flight thatdeployed two classified satellitesfor the U.S. Space Force in November.
Next year will see a huge number of launches, too, while SpaceX will also be focusing on the first test of its next-generation Super Heavy rocket and Starship spacecraft, designed for missions to the moon and beyond.
