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An August 22nd launch by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket made history by being the 100th launch of Starlink satellites. This milestone also led to the breaking of several records.

The launch took place at Vandenberg Space Force Station and resulted in SpaceX successfully landing their 218th Falcon 9 booster, marking a consecutive streak of 114 successful landings.

Undoubtedly, one of the most remarkable achievements of this launch was the deployment of 21 Version 2 ‘mini’ Starlink satellites. This means that SpaceX is now only 17 satellites away from reaching the impressive milestone of launching 5,000 satellites into orbit.

To date, SpaceX has launched a total of 4,983 Starlink satellites, with 269 of them being the V2 ‘mini’ variant. However, not all of these satellites have made it to their intended orbit. Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell reports that currently, 4,640 Starlink satellites are successfully orbiting the Earth, while another 392 are still in the process of ascending. Additionally, 210 of these satellites are drifting.

Despite these variations in status, the fact that 3,907 Starlink satellites are operational is a notable achievement on its own.

SpaceX is not slowing down, as there is another scheduled launch for this evening, August 23, weather permitting.

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