SpaceX hits 500th Falcon 9 booster landing milestone, Elon Musk reacts on X

In a remarkable breakthrough, SpaceX has reached a historic milestone with the successful 500th landing of its Falcon 9 booster, marking another major achievement in reusable rocket technology.

The landmark event took place when a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink satellites lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 5:57am EDT.

About eight and a half minutes after launch, the rocket’s first stage returned safely to Earth, touching down on the SpaceX drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” in the Atlantic Ocean.

This particular booster, designated B1095, was completing its third successful flight, all part of Starlink deployment missions.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared the milestone on his X (formerly Twitter) account, posting, “Falcon rocket lands for the 500th time.”

His post quickly went viral, with thousands of fans and space enthusiasts congratulating the SpaceX team.

This latest mission marks the 130th Falcon 9 launch of 2025. Over 70% of this year’s Falcon 9 flights have focused on expanding the Starlink constellation, which now includes nearly 8,600 operational satellites in low-Earth orbit.

In addition to Falcon 9 missions, SpaceX has conducted five test flights of its Starship megarocket, the next-generation spacecraft designed to carry humans to the Moon and eventually Mars.