SpaceX launched two Falcon 9 rockets 38 minutes apart
On the evening of August 15, SpaceX launched two Falcon 9 rockets from launch sites on opposite coasts of the United States, 38 minutes apart. According to Space.com, this is the shortest interval between two of the company’s orbital launches.
The first Falcon 9 lifted off at 9:12 p.m. Eastern Time from the U.S. Space Force base at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The rocket placed eight satellites into low Earth orbit for the Louisiana-based telecommunications company Globalstar. SpaceX reported that all eight satellites successfully separated from the upper stage within six minutes; deployment began 56.5 minutes after launch.
Thirty-eight minutes later, at 9:50 p.m. Eastern Time, another Falcon 9 launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket was carrying out a classified U.S. Space Force mission, USSF-366. Details about its payload have not been disclosed. NextSpaceflight speculated that the mission may have delivered classified satellites for a U.S. government agency on the Starshield platform into low Earth orbit, but this speculation has not been officially confirmed.
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The first stages of both rockets returned successfully. The Globalstar mission booster landed at Cape Canaveral approximately eight minutes after launch; this was its 14th flight. The first stage, which carried out the USSF-366 mission, landed on SpaceX’s “Of Course I Still Love You” floating platform in the Pacific Ocean approximately 8.5 minutes later. This was the 18th flight for this booster.
SpaceX’s previous record for the interval between two orbital launches was set on August 31, 2024, during two Starlink missions. The new interval was 27 minutes shorter. Following the dual launch, the number of Falcon 9 launches in 2026 reached 96, with Starlink missions accounting for about 75% of them.
