SpaceX surpasses 10,000 Starlink satellites with two launches

Two Falcon 9 rockets carrying a total of 56 Starlink broadband satellites lifted off from Florida and California on Sunday, pushing SpaceX’s mass-produced Starlink spacecraft past the 10,000 mark in launches and adding the latest batch to a rapidly growing low Earth orbit constellation. The launches, from Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Space Force Base, each carried 28 satellites and deployed them into low Earth orbit, SpaceX said.

The twin flights bring the cumulative number of Starlink satellites delivered to orbit to more than 10,000. Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who tracks satellite movements, tallied roughly 10,006 Starlink spacecraft delivered to low Earth orbit. Tracker tallies indicate that about 8,600 of those are currently active in orbit, with the remainder decommissioned or reentered. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 now typically carries up to 28 of the larger, more capable Starlink satellites per flight, down from earlier launches that carried 60 smaller craft.

Starlink began with two prototype satellites in 2018 and expanded operational launches in 2019. The system aims to provide high-speed internet to homes, businesses and remote areas worldwide, and has surpassed seven...