SpaceX crossed the threshold of having more than 10,000 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit simultaneously for the first time. The milestone comes less than seven years after launching its first batch of satellites in May 2019.
Coincidently, the Monday night launch also coincided with the 100th anniversary of Robert Goddard's launch of the first liquid-propelled rocket, which was fueled by gasoline. A century later, SpaceX's Monday night launch of a Falcon 9 rocket was the 615th flight of this kerosene-fueled rocket.
Liftoff of the mission that put SpaceX over the 10,000-satellite threshold, dubbed Starlink Group 17-24, happened at 10:19:09 p.m. PDT (1:19:09 a.m. EDT / 0619:09 UTC on Tuesday, Mar. 17).
