SpaceX Flies 700th Falcon 9 Mission as Its Rolling Launch Count Drops Below 150

A Falcon 9 carrying 27 Starlink satellites lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 0404 UTC on Oct. 31. That was 9:04 p.m. Pacific on Friday, Oct. 30. The mission, Starlink Group 15-18, was a success.

According to Spaceflight Now's tally, it was the 700th Falcon 9 launch.

The booster and the numbers

The first stage, booster B1093, flew for the 18th time. It first flew on April 7, 2025. It landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific about 8.5 minutes after liftoff.

Spaceflight Now counts that as the 231st landing on that droneship and the 675th Falcon booster landing overall. B1093 has now landed successfully on all 18 of its flights.

The launch window ran from 03:48 to 07:48 UTC. SpaceX moved the target time several times, from 04:02 UTC to 04:04 UTC, and launched at the later time. The forecast called for broken clouds, 61°F and a 60% chance of precipitation at the site.

It was SpaceX's 11th and final orbital launch of October, per Spaceflight Now.

A slowing cadence

The milestone arrives alongside a drop in tempo. On Oct. 27, SpaceX's rolling 365-day total fell below 150 orbital launches for the first time since July 2025, Spaceflight Now reported. The peak was 171 in December 2025.

The same report says Falcon 9 Starlink flights from Florida ended in August. It ties the slowdown to SpaceX shifting its attention to Starship. SpaceX has not been quoted in these figures explaining its launch schedule.

The numbers are still large. Eleven orbital launches in a single month would have been a record-class pace for most of the history of spaceflight. SpaceX is comparing itself to its own 2025 peak.

Apple Maps goes blurry over launch sites

Separately, Apple Maps now blurs satellite imagery over Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Vandenberg, NASA's Wallops Flight Facility and Stennis Space Center, according to SpaceExplored. Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, home to most of the B-2 bomber fleet, is also blurred.

Apple has not announced the change or given a reason. Large Navy installations such as Pearl Harbor, Norfolk and Naval Station Great Lakes remain visible. Google Maps has not blurred any of these sites.

The practical effect is limited. Other commercial imagery providers still show the same ground, so anyone checking a pad has other options. What is unclear is who requested the change, if anyone did, and why only some federal sites were selected.

What comes next

Starship Flight 15 is expected in mid-November from SpaceX's Starbase facility in Texas. SpaceX says it will attempt to catch the Starship upper stage, a step beyond the booster catches the company has already flown.

Whether that flight happens on schedule will say more about SpaceX's launch pace through the end of 2026 than the Falcon 9 count will.