SpaceX’s 2025 launch campaign has been nothing short of historic. As the year draws to a close, the company confirmed that it has achieved 165 total launches — a milestone reached after revising its original annual manifest earlier in the year. SpaceX had initially aimed for 170 launches in 2025, a target set to push its launch operations further than ever before, but later adjusted the plan to 165 based on business and manifest considerations. With a couple of Falcon 9 missions still remaining in the schedule, the team cheerfully refers to the revised total as “extra credit for a total of 1-6-7.”
This achievement reflects an extraordinary pace of spaceflight. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets have been the workhorses of this year’s campaign — deploying Starlink satellites, delivering government and commercial payloads, and supporting national security missions — contributing heavily to both the sheer number of flights and the overall orbital activity worldwide. According to publicly available launch trackers, SpaceX had completed at least 165 Falcon 9 missions in 2025, making it one of the busiest years on record for a single launch provider.
A noteworthy detail from the announcement is that the Starlink 6-99 mission served as the last “single stick” launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the foreseeable future, as SpaceX positions that pad for more Falcon Heavy flights and as a key hub for its Starship program. This shift underscores how SpaceX is simultaneously managing a high Falcon 9 cadence while transitioning some resources toward heavier lift vehicles and future deep-space launch infrastructure.
Reaching 165 launches in a single calendar year highlights how the space industry’s capabilities have evolved. Launches that were once major annual events — measured in single or double digits — are now routine weekly or even daily operations for SpaceX. Beyond simply setting a numerical mark, this cadence underpins the deployment of global infrastructure such as the Starlink broadband constellation, enables diverse scientific and defense missions, and reinforces the maturity of reusable rocket technology.
As SpaceX prepares for its final flights of 2025 and continues to advance new capabilities with Falcon Heavy and Starship, the accomplishments of this year set a high bar for future launch campaigns and signal how space access is being re-imagined — not as a rare spectacle, but as a reliable, ongoing service.
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