SpaceX is sprinting through 2025. The company hit its 100th Falcon 9 launch of the year in mid-August while preparing Starship Flight 10 for this evening at Starbase, Texas. At the same time, independent trackers count more than 8,000 Starlink satellites on orbit, cementing SpaceX’s dominance in LEO broadband.
Here’s the up-to-the-minute picture: cadence, constellation, and the Starship milestones NASA is watching closely for Artemis.
Falcon 9’s breathtaking cadence
On August 18, 2025, a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg carried 24 Starlink satellites and marked SpaceX’s 100th Falcon 9 launch of 2025. The booster (B1088) notched its ninth flight, underscoring how reuse underpins this rate.
Spaceflight Now’s timeline confirms deployment later that day, with public trackers matching the count. In practical terms, 100 launches by mid-August implies a full-year pace that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago.
Starlink at unprecedented scale
How big is Starlink today? Astronomy writers leaning on Jonathan McDowell’s data placed 8,094 satellites in orbit as of August 1, 2025, with 8,075 working. Follow-on launches have nudged those numbers higher through August. That scale explains SpaceX’s push for bigger, more capable Starlink variants—and why Starship matters for deployment economics.
Why Flight 10 matters tonight
Starship’s tenth flight aims to lock in reusability steps that have proven elusive: boostback control and soft splashdown for Super Heavy in the Gulf of Mexico; higher-stress reentry and heat-shield validation for Ship over the Indian Ocean; and payload bay operations with mock Starlink units.
Reuters and other outlets list a target launch time around 7:30 p.m. ET, with SpaceX streaming coverage about 30 minutes prior. Success would shorten the path to operational reuse and prove out capabilities needed for both Starlink and NASA missions.
Artemis III and the Starship dependency
NASA’s plan to land astronauts at the lunar south pole on Artemis III (no earlier than 2027) depends on a lunar-optimized Starship as the Human Landing System. Agencies and media have flagged Starship reentry and orbital refueling as gating items. While NASA remains optimistic about the learning curve, each test flight’s outcomes feed directly into the Artemis risk picture. Expect the agency to watch Flight 10’s reentry performance, payload ops, and data on engine relights closely.
The constellation, from skywatching to spectrum
Beyond launch notes, Starlink’s growth shows up in the sky. Visible “trains” after deployment continue to spark astronomy debates about brightness and mitigation. For broadband customers, the bigger story is capacity and coverage as SpaceX densifies orbital shells. The company has also signaled ambitions that pair Starlink with direct-to-cell capabilities and enterprise backhaul—areas where launch cadence and satellite count turn directly into product quality.
One official link to watch live launches
SpaceX maintains an updated manifest with stream links and recent missions here: SpaceX — Launches.
Bottom line
SpaceX in 2025 is two stories at once: a Falcon 9 machine pushing orbital logistics into airline-like tempo, and a Starship program wrestling with the final pieces of reusability at super-heavy scale. Tonight’s Flight 10 won’t settle every question, but it can shrink the distance between spectacular test footage and the quiet reliability that Artemis and next-gen Starlink demand.
