SpaceX Achieves Historic Milestone: Launches 74 Satellites and Lands Falcon 9 for the 400th Time

In a dazzling display of engineering prowess and reusable rocket technology, SpaceX successfully launched 74 satellites into orbit early this morning while marking a monumental achievement: the 400th successful landing of a Falcon 9 first-stage booster. The launch, which took place at 2:43 a.m. ET (11:43 p.m. PT on March 14) from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, underscores the company’s relentless drive to revolutionize spaceflight and expand access to the cosmos.

The mission, dubbed Transporter-13, was the 13th in SpaceX’s dedicated smallsat rideshare program, a series designed to provide cost-effective launch opportunities for smaller payloads. The Falcon 9 rocket roared into the predawn sky, carrying a diverse array of 74 satellites, including CubeSats, microsats, hosted payloads, a reentry capsule, and an orbital transfer vehicle tasked with deploying 11 of the payloads at a later time. Among the notable cargo was the W-3 reentry capsule from Varda Space Industries, a prototype for orbital mini-factories that could one day manufacture pharmaceuticals and materials in microgravity.

Approximately eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster executed a flawless landing on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You, stationed in the Pacific Ocean. This touchdown marked the 400th time SpaceX has successfully recovered a Falcon 9 booster, a testament to the company’s pioneering work in rocket reusability. SpaceX celebrated the milestone on X, posting, “Landing confirmed, marking the 400th time a Falcon 9 first stage booster has landed,” accompanied by a video of the booster settling onto the droneship against the backdrop of a foggy California night.

The upper stage of the Falcon 9 continued its journey, deploying the 74 payloads over a 90-minute window that began roughly 54 minutes after launch. The mission’s success further solidifies SpaceX’s dominance in the commercial launch market, with the company having now launched over 1,200 payloads for approximately 130 customers across its Transporter and Bandwagon rideshare programs.

“This is a remarkable day for SpaceX and the broader space industry,” said Julianna Scheiman, SpaceX’s Director of Civil Space and Science Missions, in a post-launch statement. “Four hundred landings represent not just a number, but a paradigm shift—proof that reusable rockets can dramatically lower the cost of space access and accelerate humanity’s presence beyond Earth.”

The Transporter-13 mission comes on the heels of a busy month for SpaceX. Just days earlier, on March 11, the company launched NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions from the same Vandenberg pad, overcoming weather-related delays and a pause for a critical government operation. Earlier in 2025, SpaceX notched another milestone with the 400th successful Falcon 9 orbital flight, a Starlink mission in late November 2024, highlighting its breakneck launch cadence.

Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, has long championed reusability as the key to making spaceflight economically viable. Today’s achievement builds on that vision, with each recovered booster reducing the need for costly new hardware. The Falcon 9 involved in this launch, identified as booster B1075, completed its 11th flight and landing, having previously supported missions like Starlink 9-13 in November 2024, which coincidentally marked SpaceX’s 100th launch from the West Coast.

The excitement surrounding the launch rippled across social media, with posts on X reflecting widespread awe. One user wrote, “SpaceX just hit a massive milestone—400 successful Falcon 9 booster landings! Reusable rockets are revolutionizing spaceflight, cutting costs, and making space more accessible. Elon Musk’s vision is turning sci-fi into reality.” Another simply exclaimed, “74 satellites successfully launched! Falcon 9 lands for the 400th time. Did you miss it?”

For SpaceX, the milestone is more than a celebration—it’s a stepping stone. With plans to ramp up its launch cadence to 144 flights in 2025 and ambitions to send humans to Mars, the company shows no signs of slowing down. As the sun rose over Vandenberg this morning, the sight of a recovered Falcon 9 booster standing tall on a droneship symbolized not just a historic moment, but a future where space is within reach for all.