Halfway through 2025, SpaceX breaks Falcon records and struggles with Starship

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In the second quarter of 2025, SpaceX continued its record launch cadence with the Falcon family of rockets, completing the 500th launch of that family by any measure. The company continued to grow its Starlink constellation and customer base, and completed the deployment of its first-generation Direct-to-Cell constellation.

While all other programs at SpaceX have seen some level of success, the Starship program continued suffering issues and failures during the second quarter of 2025. This includes the explosion of a Starship second stage prior to a static fire test, which has prompted the company to devise a new path for Starship’s tenth flight. Additionally, progress continues in Florida to bring the massive rocket to the Space Coast.

Falcon and Dragon

During the second quarter of 2025, SpaceX once again launched more rockets than any other entity in the world. The 45 launches conducted in that period by SpaceX’s Falcon rockets made up 57% of all launches worldwide and more than 90% of all payload mass launched into space from Earth.

Graphic highlighting the worldwide mass-to-orbit amounts for the first and second quarter of 2025. (Credit: Ryan Caton/NSF)

With 81 launches completed in the first six months of the year, SpaceX would be on track to complete 162 launches by the end of 2025. However, much like what was analyzed in the previous quarterly roundup, this extrapolation is not entirely accurate, as it assumes that the launch cadence will remain constant for the rest of the year. 

But, even assuming a constant launch cadence, SpaceX wouldn’t need to increase its cadence that much for the remainder of the year to reach its goal of 170 launches by the end of 2025.

Launcher origin Launches Successes Failures Partial Failures
US SpaceX 81 81 0 0
Others 15 14 1 0
China 36 35 1 0
Russia 7 7 0 0
Europe 3 2 1 0
Japan 2 2 0 0
India 2 1 1 0
TOTAL 146 142 4 0

Caption: Table showing the number of launches per country of origin and their outcomes as of the end of the second quarter of 2025.

In May 2025, SpaceX matched its current record for the most launches in a calendar month, first set in November 2024, with 16 launches. The company also set the highest average monthly cadence for any quarter thus far, managing to complete 15 launches per calendar month on average.

By maintaining that kind of cadence through the following six months of the year, it would already translate into an additional 90 launches in the second half of the year — not only reaching but surpassing the goal of 170 launches in total for 2025. 

This record launch cadence has been, in part, thanks to a rather failure-free quarter, at least compared to the previous one, where many technical issues led to SpaceX standing down for several days to investigate them. 

 

The third quarter of 2025 will see the first anniversary of Falcon 9’s last launch failure, which occurred during the Starlink Group 9-3 mission in July 2024. As of the time of writing, Falcon 9 has successfully completed 148 missions since that failure, something that, for any other rocket, would be an unprecedented streak of successful flights. 

However, this streak of successes does have precedence for Falcon 9 as it is less than half the length of the streak of successes the rocket achieved before Starlink Group 9-3, which stood at 335. At the rocket’s current launch cadence, if no further issues occur, it will likely reach that number again by the summer or fall of next year. 

In June 2025, SpaceX’s Falcon family achieved its 500th launch overall, counting the five Falcon 1 launches, 11 Falcon Heavy launches, and 484 Falcon 9 launches. Shortly after, the company also achieved the 500th successful launch within the Falcon family, with two for Falcon 1, 11 for Falcon Heavy, and 487 for Falcon 9.

Additionally, the Falcon 9 rocket itself achieved its 500th launch overall at the start of the third quarter of 2025 on the Starlink Group 10-25 mission. If the current launch cadence holds, Falcon 9 could cross the 600th and 700th launch marks in 2026.

Of these over 500 Falcon rocket launches, the majority have taken place from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), which has become the most active launch site in history. SpaceX has launched more than 260 times from the Florida launchpad, with 38 of those launches occurring in the first half of 2025. 

This means the site has averaged a launch approximately every five days. During the second quarter of 2025, SpaceX set a new pad turnaround record. Although this new record was only slightly shorter than the previous one, it happened immediately after another quick turnaround that had come close to the record. 

This means the record was not a one-off event, and that SpaceX teams can achieve close to record-breaking turnaround times on multiple different occasions. SpaceX’s Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) also saw a new turnaround time record during the second quarter of the year, which saw a higher frequency of launches than in the first quarter. 

Launch Pad Previous record New record
SLC-40 2d 8h 59min 30s 2d 8h 31min 10s
LC-39A 5d 7h  9min 30s 5d  6h 20min 40s

Caption: Table comparing previous record turnaround times and new record turnaround times at Space Launch Complex 40 and Launch Complex 39A

As with all past launch cadence and turnaround records set by SpaceX, these achievements were primarily made possible by the recovery and reuse of Falcon 9 boosters and fairings. 

In the second quarter, the Falcon 9 booster fleet saw a new record for most flights for a single booster. This was set by B1067 flying for the 28th time on the Starlink Group 6-83 mission in May. The booster has since flown again at the start of the third quarter, during the Starlink Group 10-25 mission, bringing the record up to 29 flights. 

Falcon 9 fairing halves also set a new record number of flights. In May, the fairing half SN185 became the first to fly for the 30th time. SpaceX does not publicly mention the previous flights of fairing halves for every mission, nor the number of times they’ve flown, unless it is for a special occasion or a customer mission.

However, since late last year, these fairing halves have been fitted with serial number decals that are visible under certain conditions, allowing observers to track these fairings and their flight history. 

Based on observations of the launches that followed the record-breaking 30th flight, it is believed that SN185 has flown at least two more times. This means the current record for most missions flown by a fairing half is, at least, 32.

SpaceX also introduced three new boosters during the second quarter: B1093, B1094, and B1095. The latter two boosters debuted from the company’s east coast launch facilities while the first debuted at SpaceX’s California launch site. 

Another booster, B1091, was also tested during this quarter at the company’s test facility in McGregor, but has not debuted yet. This booster is unique in that it was built as a Falcon Heavy center core but fitted with hardware typically seen only on Falcon 9. 

SpaceX officials confirmed that the company intends to fly the booster first as a Falcon 9 booster before using it as the center core of a Falcon Heavy on a later mission. This approach gives SpaceX the opportunity to further utilize the booster’s hardware, rather than creating a single-use vehicle, as has been the case in past Falcon Heavy missions.

While no boosters were lost in the last three months, booster B1076 has seemingly been pulled from regular rotation as it has not flown since February 2025. This booster, which has flown 21 times to date, may be in storage awaiting a dedicated mission. However, given its age, if that were the case, it would be very likely for that mission to see the booster expended. 

Falcon 9’s only expendable piece of hardware, its second stage, also seems to be progressing at a good pace in production and testing. Based on the test cadence seen at SpaceX’s McGregor test facility via NSF’s McGregor Live livestream cameras, the company is still under the ideal rate needed to fulfill the goal of 170 launches this year. Still, it’s performing better than last year. 

As SpaceX continues increasing Falcon’s launch cadence, the company is preparing to activate a new launch site for this storied rocket family at Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. 

In May 2025, the Department of the Air Force (DAF) released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) studying the effects of launching Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets from SLC-6, as well as an increase in launch cadence at Vandenberg from 50 to 100 launches per year. 

SpaceX and the DAF initiated this process early last year, but the Draft EIS provides more details about the company’s plans for the site than were previously known. For example, it states that SpaceX plans to remove the legacy hardware that was used at the site for the now-retired Space Shuttle and Delta IV rockets. 

A new tank farm would be built on-site to support the RP-1 kerosene fuel that Falcon uses, and a pair of new landing zones would be built at the south of the complex for booster recovery. 

Proposed configuration of Space Launch Complex 6 as described in the Draft EIS. Building 398 located to the northwest, while located at SLC-6, was already part of SpaceX’s group of hangars and buildings and is used for booster and fairing refurbishment. (Credit: Department of the Air Force)

The site would still utilize some of the existing hardware, such as the flame trench, liquid oxygen storage, or the water tower. Under the main plan proposed in the document, SpaceX would use the existing Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) that was used during the Delta IV program.

The Delta IV Medium and Delta IV Heavy rockets had their first and second stages integrated horizontally, allowing Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets to use the same hangar with minimal modifications to the existing infrastructure. If this is not possible, SpaceX also proposes an alternative plan where the existing HIF is not used for rocket integration and a new HIF is built closer to the pad.

In the second quarter of 2025, SpaceX launched a total of nine customer missions, down from 12 in the first quarter. This second quarter saw Dragon missions such as Fram2, the first crewed flight to orbit the Earth’s poles. This mission also marked the first time a Crew Dragon had splashed down off the coast of California instead of Florida. 

Month Government Commercial Smallsat Starlink Starshield TOTAL
January 0 3 1 8 1 13
February 0 2 0 10 0 12
March 3 0 1 6 1 11
April 1 1 1 9 2 14
May 1 0 0 15 0 16
June 0 2 1 12 0 15
TOTAL 5 8 4 60 4 81

Caption: Table showing the types of missions launched during every month of 2025 thus far. 

SpaceX decided in 2024 to change coasts for Dragon recovery, allowing the spacecraft to deorbit while the trunk is still attached. This change necessitates the existence of large patches of water for the trunk to safely reenter and burn up.

To prepare for this new recovery plan, SpaceX relocated one of its Dragon recovery ships, Shannon, from Florida to California. The other recovery ship, Megan, remained in Port Canaveral until a few weeks ago, when SpaceX formally retired it.

Two other Dragon missions followed the Fram2 mission, with the CRS-32 cargo mission launching a few weeks later and Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) launching to the International Space Station in June. The Ax-4 mission featured the debut flight of a new Dragon capsule with serial number C213, where the “C” stands for capsule, the “2” for Dragon 2, and the “13” for the 13th Dragon 2 capsule.

Following previous traditions, the Ax-4 crew, being the first to fly in the new capsule, named the capsule Grace. As of writing, Crew Dragon Grace and its crew of four are still docked to the orbiting laboratory and are expected to return to Earth in mid-July.

In May, SpaceX also launched the GPS-III SV08 satellite for the U.S. Space Force (USSF) on a second demonstration of rapid response mission acquisition. The satellite had originally been scheduled to fly on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket, but the USSF decided to switch rides and launch this satellite on Falcon 9 instead.

In turn, the USSF moved the GPS-IIIF SV11 satellite from Falcon Heavy to Vulcan. The change of vehicles was performed in February with the aim of launching the satellite before the end of May — a feat that all parties successfully achieved. 

SpaceX also launched commercial satellites, such as the SXM-10 satellite for SiriusXM. This mission featured, for the first time, a Falcon 9 second stage deorbit burn from a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO).

The company also launched the Bandwagon-3 and Transporter-14 missions under its Smallsat Rideshare Program, launching 73 payloads between both missions. 

More customer missions are expected in the third quarter of the year. SpaceX has already launched the MTG-S1 satellite for EUMETSAT, which also featured a second stage deorbit burn from GTO. Another satellite bound for GTO this summer is the Nusantara Lima communications satellite for Pasifik Satelit Nusantara of Indonesia. 

An upcoming O3b mPOWER satellite to be launched by SpaceX. (Credit: SES)

During this period, SpaceX also has a few missions dedicated to launching internet satellites for competitors of its own Starlink constellation. This includes a pair of O3b mPOWER internet satellites for Luxembourg-based SES and up to two missions for Amazon’s Project Kuiper. 

This summer could also see the beginning of launches for the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture Tranche 1 constellation, which will feature a tracking and transport layer. SpaceX is under contract to launch several of these from Vandenberg and could make up a majority of the company’s customer launches from the west coast in the next year. 

Another government mission set to launch from Vandenberg this summer will be the launch of NASA’s TRACERS satellites. The launch will be part of a rideshare with other NASA missions such as SPRITE, Athena, and PExT. 

Two Dragon missions are also expected during this period, with the launch of Crew-11 and CRS-33. Crew-11 will serve as the next crew rotation mission to the ISS and is currently scheduled for the late July to early August timeframe. 

The CRS-33 mission will carry what officials have called a “boost trunk,” which is allegedly designed to introduce a series of upgrades that support reboosts of the Station and aid in the development of the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle. 

Starlink and Starshield

Just like in previous quarters, Starlink missions dominated SpaceX’s launch schedule, with 36 Starlink launches having occurred in the second quarter of 2025. Additionally, another two Starshield missions for the National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) Proliferated Space Architecture constellation took place in that period as well. 

Starlink v2 Mini Starlink DTC Starshield
Q1 2025 356 182 35
Q2 2025 806 104 44
Total 2025 1162 286 79

Caption: Table indicating the number of satellites launched in 2025 per quarter and per type of satellite.

Between April and June 2025, SpaceX launched a total of 954 satellites, 806 of which were Starlink v2 Mini satellites, 104 were Starlink Direct-to-Cell (DTC) satellites, and 44 were Starshield satellites. 

The 44 Starshield satellites were launched on the NROL-192 and NROL-145 missions in April for the NRO. These two were the latest missions to support the NRO’s own secretive constellation of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. No other mission in support of this constellation has occurred since April, but more missions are expected later this year and throughout the decade. 

In June 2025, SpaceX completed the first generation of its DTC constellation, having launched a total of 674 satellites into LEO. In June, SpaceX and T-Mobile announced that, in July, the companies would transition this service out of its beta program in the United States. The service is also expected to receive an upgrade later this year to connect to apps that require minimal bandwidth through DTC.

In other countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, carriers like Optus and One New Zealand have already phased out their beta programs after launching them several months ago. In the case of One New Zealand, the operator claims that more than two million texts have been sent through Starlink’s DTC service. 

SpaceX’s Vice President of Starlink Engineering has also teased that a second generation of DTC is in the works. However, the company has not provided further details on when this will launch or whether it will still use Falcon 9 or Starship for launches. 

In June, Starlink also received licensing approval to commence commercial operations in India, the world’s most populous country. While Starlink still requires additional licenses before it can start services in India, once the paperwork is complete, it will increase the number of potential customers for this service. 

That same month, Starlink announced it had surpassed six million users, up from 4.6 million at the end of 2024. This corresponds to an average of over 200,000 new users each month.

Starship

While the Falcon, Dragon, and Starlink programs had a successful first half of the year, SpaceX’s Starship program has not had the same luck. 

The company already suffered back-to-back launch failures in the first quarter of the year, with Starship’s seventh and eighth launches failing toward the end of the ship’s ascent burn.

In the second quarter, SpaceX carried out Starship’s ninth flight, and while the ship did complete its ascent burn, it quickly lost attitude control during its coast phase in space. This led to the ship being unable to carry out critical experiments that SpaceX wanted to test during the flight, such as the first relight of a Raptor engine in space for a Block 2 ship and the new thermal protection system (TPS) and flap design. 

Additionally, the ship was unable to test the deployment of Starlink satellite simulators due to the payload bay door being unable to open. NSF understands that this was related to an issue with the pressure regulation inside the nosecone, which prevented the door from opening inward in the near-vacuum of space. 

Starship’s ninth flight saw higher success in being the first to feature the first reuse of a Super Heavy booster, with Booster 14 flying for a second time. 

In the aftermath of Flight 9, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also provided an update on the upcoming next steps for the Starship program and the long-range timeline for the company’s Mars program. This included the eventual catch of a ship at Starbase’s second pad, the launch of the upgraded Block 3 version of Starship from that same pad, and the demonstration of in-orbit refuelling from one ship to another. 

During the first half of June, SpaceX quickly geared up for a quick turnaround for Flight 10, testing Booster 16 at the launch site about ten days after Flight 9. Ship 36 quickly followed, completing a single static fire test at Massey’s outpost on June 16th.

However, the ship suffered a major anomaly and explosion on the evening of June 18th while undergoing propellant loading for a six-engine static fire test at Massey’s. SpaceX quickly pointed out an issue with a nitrogen composite overwrapped pressure vessel (COPV) inside the ship’s nosecone failing under its proof pressure. 

In the aftermath of the explosion, teams quickly moved to an alternate plan for vehicle testing. That alternative plan appears to involve the use of a modified ship transport stand as an adapter, which will allow a ship to be static fired from the active orbital launch mount at Starbase. 

This alternative solution would allow SpaceX to test the next ship in line, Ship 37, while clean-up and repair work continues at Massey’s. It would also allow SpaceX to quickly resume pre-launch campaign operations. Under this assumption, a launch of Starship during this summer could be possible if all goes according to plan. 

Outside of Starship flights and testing, SpaceX kickstarted major production of the first Block 3 boosters and ships. The company has begun the stacking of Booster 18, the first Block 3 booster, inside Mega Bay 1. As of writing, the vehicle’s liquid oxygen tank is nearly complete and has had its landing tank installed in recent days. 

NSF photographers at Starbase have also spotted several nosecones for upcoming ships in various steps of production, ranging from Ship 39 all the way to Ship 44. 

In the first half of 2025, SpaceX also began several infrastructure projects, including the construction of two new Giga Bays — one at Starbase and another at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). While the Giga Bay being built in Florida is a few months ahead of the one at Starbase, work at both sites has only just begun, with foundation work expected to continue for several more months into the year. 

SpaceX is also continuing work at various Starship launch sites, including at Starbase and in Florida. Starbase’s second launch pad received its launch mount in May, and teams have quickly worked on connecting all necessary lines and connections between the deluge and propellant tank farms to the new launch mount. That work is still ongoing as of publication, and it’s expected to continue throughout the remainder of the summer. 

Work also continues at the Starship pad at LC-39A, where teams have seemingly completed the digging of the flame trench to be used for Starship launches. Additionally, new propellant and deluge tanks have been installed at the site, and more are expected to arrive in the coming months. 

Launch mount construction is progressing at SpaceX’s Roberts Road facility, and it is understood that the company is currently building the launch pad’s flame bucket near Hangar M at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). 

In June, the Department of the Air Force also released the Draft EIS for Starship launches from Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at CCSFS. The document is part of the environmental process needed for SpaceX to eventually launch Starship from that site.

Although the process is still not complete, SpaceX has been granted a limited right of entry, which has allowed teams to begin demolishing legacy structures for the Delta IV program .

(Lead image: Top left: View of Falcon 9 booster B1067 after its 29th flight (Credit: Julia Bergeron/NSF). Top right: Crew Dragon Grace sitting atop its Falcon 9 rocket at Launch Complex 39A a few days before the launch of Axiom-4 (Credit: SpaceX). Bottom left: SpaceX teams lift the second orbital launch mount at Starbase (Credit: Jack Beyer/NSF). Bottom right: Ship 36 explodes prior to its six engine static fire test at Massey (Credit: D Wise/NSF))

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