SpaceX shatters its rocket launch record yet again — 165 orbital flights in 2025
SpaceX just set a new annual-launch record for the sixth year in a row, and the numbers are getting pretty silly.
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 29 Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida on Dec. 17, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)
Surprise, surprise: SpaceX shattered its single-year launch record again in 2025.
Elon Musk's company has now set a new mark six years in a row, and the numbers are getting pretty silly. The record has risen from 25 orbital liftoffs in 2020 to 31 (2021) to 61 (2022) to 96 (2023) to 134 (2024) and, now, to a whopping 167.
That's a launch almost every other day, a staggering cadence that leaves other companies — and entire nations — in the dust. Indeed, SpaceX launched nearly twice as many orbital missions as China did this year, and the company's 2025 output represented about 85% of the United States' total tally.
All 167 of those launches were conducted by SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9, which features a reusable first stage. (There were no liftoffs by the powerful Falcon Heavy, which hasn't flown since October 2024.) And those Falcon 9 boosters came back to Earth for a safe landing on all but three occasions.
Two of the exceptions were launches in January and October that sent massive Spainsat NG communications satellites to geostationary transfer orbit. These were heavy lifts for the Falcon 9 first stage, which didn't have enough fuel left over for a return to Earth.
The other non-landing was a failed attempt, suffered during the launch of a batch of Starlink internet satellites on March 3. The booster actually touched down successfully on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean as planned that day, but it tipped over after a fire broke out near its base and damaged a landing leg.
Speaking of Starlink missions: They dominated SpaceX's manifest this year, making up 123 of the 167 Falcon 9 launches. Together, those missions lofted more than 3,000 satellites for the Starlink megaconstellation, which currently consists of more than 9,300 active spacecraft.
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SpaceX notched a number of other milestones during this very busy year. For example, the company pulled off its and in 2025. And it repeatedly extended the record for most launches by a single Falcon 9 booster, which currently .