SpaceX preps the final rocket launch of its blockbuster year

Its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket has been busier than ever over the last 12 months.

By Trevor Mogg Published December 23, 2025

A Falcon 9 launching. — SpaceX

By most measures, it’s been a sensational year for SpaceX. The American spaceflight company will finish 2025 having notched up a record-breaking 165 launches using its trusty Falcon 9 rocket, with the final lift-off of the year targeting Saturday, December 27.

SpaceX’s last flight of 2025 is the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation mission for the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defence, launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

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The mission is currently scheduled for 6:08 p.m. PT, though if needed, a backup opportunity is in place for Sunday, December 28, at the same time.

A livestream of the mission will start around 15 minutes before lift-off, which you can watch on X @SpaceX or on SpaceX’s website.

This will be the 21st flight for the first-stage booster, which previously launched Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, Transporter-10, EarthCARE, NROL-186, Transporter-13, TRACERS, NROL-48, and 11 Starlink missions.

About eight minutes after launch, the booster will return to Earth and touch down at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

It’s been a bumper year for SpaceX launches. By completing 165 missions, the company will have smashed its previous annual launch record, set last year, by 31.

The majority of the missions in 2025 deployed batches of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites to orbit, while the remainder involved satellite deployments for governments and organizations, as well as crew and cargo flights to the International Space Station.

SpaceX also completed five launches of its in-development Starship rocket, with the most recent one taking place in October. The massive rocket will one day be used for crew and cargo missions to the moon and possibly Mars, though there’s still much work to be done to ready the rocket for its first operational launch.

With so many missions completed over the last 12 months, SpaceX has cemented its position as the dominant player in orbital launches, with next year likely to prove even busier for the company.

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

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