HAWTHORNE, Calif. — SpaceX hit a quiet but significant milestone on Tuesday when Falcon 9 booster B1088 touched down on the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" for the 200th time — a marker of how far the company's rocket reusability program has come since the vessel began operating in 2016.
The landing came at the conclusion of the Starlink 17-47 mission, which lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:36 a.m. PDT on June 3. The rocket carried 24 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized broadband satellites into low Earth orbit, adding to a constellation that now totals more than 10,000 active spacecraft.
B1088's 16th Flight
Booster B1088 was flying for the 16th time, having previously launched missions including NASA's SPHEREx space telescope, the Transporter-12 rideshare, and NRO-L126. After stage separation roughly eight minutes into the flight, B1088 made the long trip back to OCISLY — the drone ship stationed in the Pacific Ocean to catch West Coast launches.
That successful catch marked the 200th landing on OCISLY specifically, and the 619th booster recovery in SpaceX history across all landing sites combined. Each landing allows SpaceX to refurbish and refly the booster, cutting the cost of putting payloads into orbit compared to expendable rockets.
Starlink Constellation Passes 10,000 Satellites
The Starlink 17-47 payload brought the total count of operational Starlink satellites past 10,000 — a milestone that underscores the pace of SpaceX's network deployment. The constellation supports broadband internet for consumers, enterprises, airlines, and government users worldwide, with Starlink Direct to Cell expanding mobile coverage in areas without ground-based towers.
