The SpaceX Falcon 9 just hit a major launch milestone over the weekend with its 500th successful launch. While most companies would have maybe made a bigger deal out of the milestone, it was just another day for SpaceX, and the payload it flew left the mission in a veil of secrecy for a little bit.
Sunday morning, SpaceX launched the Dror-1 spacecraft for the Israeli defense company Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). With few details shared ahead of and during the launch, IAI was only referred to as “the customer” during the launch stream, a procedure usually only used for the most sensitive and classified missions. For context, even the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency in charge of America’s spy satellites, is named as the customer for its missions.
SpaceX also concluded the stream after its booster successfully touched down on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions.
However, it was hard to notice the large IAI logo painted on the side of the payload fairing, giving the customer’s identity away.
It was only after the launch that IAI shared details of the military communication satellite it launched for Israel that morning. A fun tidbit of information: the satellite appears to have been a part of the company’s AMOS satellite bus program, and the last AMOS satellite to have been put on a Falcon 9 was the AMOS-6 spacecraft, which was lost during a pre-launch test back in 2016.
Falcon 9 redemption story for its 500th mission?
Space Explored’s Take
SpaceX’s jump from 100 launches to 500 is an incredible feat. From the Falcon 9’s debut in 2010, it took 10 years until it hit the triple-digit milestone in 2020. Only five years later, SpaceX has quintupled its launches and has no signs of slowing down.
SpaceX is on a path for another record-setting year; if our launch tracker launch rate is to be believed (it’s usually pretty close), SpaceX could complete 160 Falcon launches by year’s end.
It’s important to note the reason for SpaceX’s impressive launch rates and why it has hit 500 launches so quickly in the last five years: Starlink. So far in 2025, nearly 73% of all launches have been for the company’s satellite internet service.
In 2024, it was 67% of SpaceX’s Falcon launches, and in 2023, Starlink accounted for about 65% of Falcon launches.
Starlink brings in significant income; according to Payload Space’s annual SpaceX revenue estimate, Starlink was the company’s main breadwinner in 2024. The service will only grow with the limited competition it currently has; however, some competitors are coming soon.
While many see SpaceX’s launch cadence growth as signs of a strong and growing commercial launch market, the company is actually subsidizing it with its internal missions. The second most launched rocket from the US, Rocket Lab’s Electron, has only launched 10 times, all of which are commercial launch contracts.
If SpaceX didn’t operate Starlink, it would only have 23 missions so far on its launch docket for 2025.
