SpaceX Falcon Completes 700th Mission
SpaceX's Falcon series rockets completed their 700th mission at 2:49 PM EDT (18:49 UTC) on September 13 at Launch Complex 40 of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This mission utilized a Falcon 9 rocket, marking the 105th launch of this model this year.
The mission carried three O3b mPOWER telecommunications satellites for Luxembourg satellite operator SES, manufactured by Boeing, with each satellite weighing approximately 1,900 kg (about 3,750 lbs). The satellites were deployed about 34 minutes after launch, with one satellite released every 7 minutes, completing the deployment process in approximately 14 minutes, ultimately placing the satellites into a medium Earth orbit at about 5,000 miles altitude.
These three satellites (designated F11, F12, F13) are the final three in the O3b mPOWER constellation, marking the official completion of the network of 13 satellites. The constellation was previously launched in batches of two satellites each in December 2022, April 2023, November 2023, December 2024, and July 2025, with the entire system expected to be operational by mid-2027, providing services for industries requiring "predictable low latency, excellent throughput, and high flexibility."
The first stage rocket used for this mission is designated B1080, marking its 29th flight. It has previously completed four cargo missions to the International Space Station, the European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope launch, the SES Astra 1P satellite launch, and 22 batches of Starlink satellite launches. After launch, the booster successfully landed on the autonomous drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" in the Atlantic Ocean.
This landing also set multiple records—this is the 166th successful recovery of the "A Shortfall of Gravitas" drone ship and the 661st successful landing of a Falcon series first stage booster. Additionally, this launch is the 400th orbital launch from Launch Complex 40, with 345 of those conducted by SpaceX.
As of now, SpaceX has completed a total of 107 orbital launches this year (105 Falcon 9, 2 Falcon Heavy), continuing the trend of increasing launch frequency over the past few years. The Falcon series rockets have been operational for 20 years since their first flight in March 2006, with high-frequency reuse of boosters (with a single booster flying up to 29 times) significantly reducing the marginal cost of each launch. This enables SpaceX to take on commercial satellite constellation orders like SES at prices far below traditional aerospace contractors, while also supporting the expansion of its own large-scale Starlink constellation. For SES, the completion of the constellation means entering the commercialization phase, competing directly with rivals like OneWeb and Amazon Kuiper for enterprise and government customers in the medium Earth orbit broadband satellite communication market.
Source: Public Information
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The Falcon series rockets have been operational for a full 20 years since their first flight in March 2006. From the early failures of Falcon 1 that nearly bankrupted SpaceX to the current Falcon 9 boosters being reused 29 times and achieving 661 successful landings, this trajectory itself is a complete historical sample of the transition from "reusable rockets" as a concept to commercial-scale implementation. The B1080 booster used for this mission has previously executed various high-value payloads, including cargo missions to the International Space Station and scientific exploration missions for the European Space Agency, indicating that institutional clients like NASA and ESA have transitioned from "willing to try" to "routine use" of Falcon 9 reusable boosters.
On the capital path, SES, as a satellite operator, chose to build the O3b mPOWER constellation with 13 satellites over nearly three years in batches, which itself is a capital-level vote of confidence in SpaceX's high-frequency, low marginal cost launch capability. Without the high launch frequency and predictable cost structure of Falcon 9, SES's medium-scale medium Earth orbit satellite constellation project would be economically unfeasible. For SpaceX, continuously securing orders from third-party clients like SES, ESA, and NASA beyond Starlink is a capital path that supports rocket development and the Starship project without relying on a single source of income.
This contrasts sharply with the business models of traditional aerospace contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which rely on "one-time high-value custom rockets," and is more akin to the historical transformation in the aviation industry from "custom charter flights" to "low-cost airline scaled operations"—Falcon 9 has driven launch costs down to a fraction of traditional one-time rockets, which is why clients like SES, who might have considered European Ariane or United Launch Alliance, ultimately chose SpaceX. In terms of industry positioning, the global commercial launch market has formed a highly concentrated pattern where "SpaceX alone handles the vast majority of global commercial launch demand," which is the true industry significance of this "700th mission" milestone.
Essentially, this is an industry chain reconstruction driven by technology substitution—reusable rocket technology has transformed "launch services" from a capital-intensive, low-frequency business in traditional aerospace into a high-frequency, marginal cost-reducing business that approaches industrial production rhythms. This directly compresses the survival space of traditional aerospace contractors and makes satellite constellation projects that were previously uncommercializable due to high launch costs economically viable. Mechanically, SpaceX continuously reduces fixed costs by increasing the reuse frequency of a single booster, creating a cost advantage that competitors without equivalent reuse technology find difficult to replicate in the short term, which is the core driving force behind the ongoing concentration of the global commercial space landscape towards SpaceX.
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With each additional reuse, the cost moat deepens.
When launches become cheap enough, constellations turn from PPT into business.
One company monopolizing most global launches is itself a signal of monopoly.