On April 18, 2014, a Falcon 9 first stage did something no orbital rocket had ever done before. It fired its engines on the way down, steered itself through the atmosphere using grid fins that did not yet exist, and touched the Atlantic Ocean softly enough to survive the impact. Nobody recovered it. The data was the whole point.
SpaceX completes first full-duration Starship V3 upper stage static fire, targeting Flight 12 in May as Starlink surpasses 10,242 working satellites.
SpaceX quietly built the world's largest 4G network without a single cell tower. Over 650 satellites now connect standard smartphones directly from orbit, and most people carrying compatible phones don't know the service exists.
SpaceX fired all 33 Raptor 3 engines on Starship V3, while a 1,000th Starlink launch of 2026 and Apple's $11.6B Amazon satellite deal reshape the industry.
SpaceX launches its 1,000th Starlink satellite of 2026 on Falcon 9, adding 29 more craft to a 10,191-working-satellite constellation.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 delivered Northrop Grumman's second Cygnus XL — carrying over 5 tons of cargo — to the ISS on April 11, 2026.
