SpaceX launches 600th Falcon 9 rocket to date with Starlink flight from Vandenberg

A long-exposure streak shot of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket soaring away from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Starlink 17-13 mission on Feb. 14, 2026. Image: SpaceX

Update Feb. 14, 10:45 p.m. EST (0345 UTC): SpaceX deployed the 24 Starlink satellites.

SpaceX continued its busy weekend with the launch of its 600th Falcon 9 rocket to date. The milestone mission comes hours after its Dragon spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station as part of its 20th human spaceflight mission.

The Starlink 17-13 mission launched Saturday evening from Vandenberg Space Force Base. It sent 24 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit.

Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 5:59:59 p.m. PST (8:59:59 p.m. EST / 0159:59 UTC), at the end of the launch window. The rocket flew on a southerly trajectory upon leaving the pad.



SpaceX launched the mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number 1081. This was its 22nd flight after launching four missions for NASA (Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, and TRACERS) among others.

More than eight minutes after liftoff, B1081 landed on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ positioned in the Pacific Ocean. This was the 178th landing on this vessel and the 571st booster landing to date for SpaceX.

Earlier in the day, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft named Freedom arrived at the ISS at 3:15 p.m. EST (2015 UTC). The orbital arrival of three astronauts and one cosmonaut came roughly 34 hours after launching from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.