New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS) Elon Musk on Monday lauded its satellite internet service Starlink for launching 10,000 satellites.
The company achieved the 10,000 milestone on October 19, with a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink internet satellites lifted off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The launch also marked SpaceX’s 132nd Falcon 9 flight of 2025, equaling last year’s record with more than two months left in the year.
“Congrats, Starlink and Falcon teams, on building and launching 10k satellites! SpaceX now has several times more satellites in orbit than all others combined,” Musk shared in a post on social media platform X.
“SpaceX has now launched more than 10,000 Starlink satellites to date, enabling reliable high-speed internet for millions of people all around the world,” added Starlink on X.
The Starlink network, which began in 2018 with two prototype satellites named Tintin A and Tintin B, currently serves millions of users worldwide. More than 8,000 of the Starlink satellites that SpaceX has launched are currently operational.
Starlink, operated by Musk’s SpaceX, provides internet services via a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites and is used in remote areas and conflict zones globally.
It has approval to deploy up to 12,000 satellites and plans to eventually expand the network to more than 30,000. It is available in over 150 countries and territories and has also been approved for use in India.
Meanwhile, SpaceX recently completed the 11th test flight of its giant Starship rocket on October 13. The rocket launched from Starbase, Texas, and flew for more than an hour before successfully splashing into the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX’s Starship Flight 10 ship, in August, also made an on-target “soft landing” and splashdown, and ended the vehicle’s series of failures seen this year.
With Starship, SpaceX aims to establish a permanent human presence on Mars.
US space agency NASA has also tapped Starship as the lunar lander for the agency’s upcoming Artemis 3 mission, which aims to put astronauts’ boots on the moon for the first time since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and ’70s.
–IANS
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