Overview
- SpaceX launched two Falcon 9 rockets about 38 minutes apart on Saturday night, completing back-to-back liftoffs from Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg and setting the company’s shortest gap between orbital flights.
- The first mission, Globalstar 2R Launch 1 from Cape Canaveral, deployed eight replacement Globalstar satellites successfully into low Earth orbit after a 56.5-minute upper-stage coast and separation sequence.
- The second mission, USSF-366 from Vandenberg, reached orbit but remains classified; SpaceX cut the West Coast livestream shortly after first-stage recovery and the U.S. Space Force has not disclosed payload details.
- Both Falcon 9 first stages were recovered—one returning to Landing Zone 40 at Cape Canaveral and the other landing on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You—underscoring the role of booster reuse in enabling rapid operations.
- The double launch raised SpaceX’s 2026 Falcon 9 tally to 96 missions, with about three-quarters carrying Starlink hardware, and highlights how frequent, low-cost access to space could accelerate commercial plans such as Amazon’s pending Globalstar purchase and future national-security deployments.