SpaceX Launches 80th Starlink Mission This Year. 3 Reasons Its Rocket Switch Matters.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket at a facility in Hawthorne, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Key Points

• SpaceX completed its 80th Starlink launch of the year on Sunday, sending 27 satellites to low-Earth orbit from California.
• SpaceX is phasing out its Falcon 9 rocket to replace it with the 400-foot tall Starship, which is designed to help the company cut costs.
• Starlink missions out of Florida will now fly on Starship, while the West Coast team will continue launching Starlink from Vandenberg.

SpaceX completed its 80th Starlink launch of the year on Sunday, ahead of a switch-up that should help the rocket and AI company cut costs.

The Falcon 9 booster launched 27 satellites to low-Earth orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

SpaceX is in the process of phasing out Falcon 9, which it plans to replace with the 400-foot tall Starship. SpaceX recently filed paperwork linked to the 14th Starship test, listing an operation start date of Sept. 15.

The company’s vice president of launch Kiko Dontchev said in a post on X last month that the Falcon 9 had made its final Starlink launch from Florida.

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“From here on, Starlink missions out of Florida will fly on Starship. The West Coast team will continue regularly launching Starlink from Vandenberg,” Dontchev wrote.

Starship is fully reusable, can carry a much greater payload weight, and runs off liquid methane rather than kerosene—all of which could make it cheaper than Falcon 9, and better suited for missions to Mars.

Cutting costs ultimately matters for SpaceX shares, which have struggled for direction since the company’s initial public offering in June. The stock climbed 3% last week, closing at $147.95 on Friday.

Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com

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