Falcon 9 Launches Starlink Group 10-53 — 66th Orbital Mission of 2026; B1085 16th Flight; 617th Booster Recovery on ASOG

SpaceX Falcon 9 booster B1085 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, at 8:57 AM EDT (12:57 UTC) on May 29, 2026, carrying 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to low Earth orbit. This was B1085's 16th flight — a booster that previously flew NASA Crew-9, Fram2, and Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1. The first stage executed a downrange burn and landed on the autonomous spaceport drone ship 'A Shortfall of Gravitas' (ASOG) in the Atlantic Ocean, marking the 617th cumulative SpaceX booster recovery and ASOG's 152nd touchdown. Satellites were deployed approximately one hour after liftoff in full mission success, adding to SpaceX's dense low Earth orbit constellation. The mission is SpaceX's 66th orbital launch of 2026, maintaining the company's record pace ahead of its Nasdaq IPO on June 12. The Starlink constellation now exceeds approximately 10,510+ active satellites in orbit. The launch proceeded while SpaceX's Starship/Super Heavy system remains grounded pending FAA mishap investigation into the IFT-12 Booster 19 anomaly.