July 2, 2025 at 6:32 AM EDT An early Wednesday morning launch on the Space Coast marked the 500th time SpaceX has flown its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, reusing the fleet-leading first stage booster for a record 29th time. The latest flight with a payload of 27 Starlink satellites lifted off Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:28 a.m. coming just over nine hours since launch No. 499 from neighboring Kennedy Space Center, which sent up a European weather satellite. The booster, which first flew in 2021 and had since been used on two human spaceflights among 28 previous missions, completed flight 29 landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Falcon fleet leader touches down for its 29th launch and landing pic.twitter.com/4ypDMyJQTs