SpaceX Launches 600th Falcon 9 as Crew-12 Reaches ISS

February 2026 has been one of the most eventful months in spaceflight history. On Valentine's Day, SpaceX launched its 600th Falcon 9 rocket — a Starlink mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base — cementing the vehicle's status as the most-flown orbital rocket in history. Just one day earlier, NASA's Crew-12 mission docked with the International Space Station after launching on an appropriately historic Friday the 13th. And in the background, Artemis 2 preparations are entering their final phase, promising to send astronauts beyond the Moon's orbit for the first time since Apollo.

600 and Counting

When SpaceX first launched Falcon 9 in June 2010, reusable rocketry was still science fiction to most of the aerospace industry. Sixteen years later, the 600th flight is a routine Starlink satellite deployment — a testament to how thoroughly SpaceX has industrialized access to orbit. The Starlink 17-13 mission marked the 180th launch from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 4E, a pad that now averages a launch every few days. SpaceX's relentless cadence has made it the dominant player in global orbital launch services.

Crew-12: A Valentine's Day Arrival

NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 launched aboard Crew Dragon Freedom on February 13, carrying a diverse international crew: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. The crew docked with the ISS on Valentine's Day for an eight-month science mission. It was the first time NASA launched a crewed mission on a Friday the 13th — a superstition the crew cheerfully dismissed.

Artemis 2: The Moon Awaits

At Kennedy Space Center, NASA is loading liquid hydrogen aboard the Space Launch System for a critical test of repairs made to a leaky umbilical that delayed a countdown rehearsal on February 2. If the test succeeds, Artemis 2 will send a crew of four astronauts on a trajectory around the Moon — farther than any humans have traveled since Apollo 17 in 1972. The mission represents humanity's return to deep space after more than five decades.

China's Next-Gen Rocket

On February 11, China successfully conducted a low-altitude demonstration flight of the Long March-10 rocket and a maximum dynamic pressure escape test of the Mengzhou crewed spacecraft. The Long March-10 is designed to carry Chinese astronauts to the Moon, making it a direct competitor to NASA's SLS. China's lunar ambitions have accelerated significantly, with crewed lunar missions targeted before 2030.

Eyes on the Sky

Beyond the rockets, astronomers have their eyes on C/2026 A1 MAPS — a newly discovered sungrazer comet that could put on a memorable show in early April if it survives its close approach to the Sun. And NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, working alongside the James Webb Space Telescope, has discovered JADES-ID1 — a massive galaxy cluster assembling itself just one billion years after the Big Bang, containing at least 66 galaxies wrapped in million-degree gas. February 2026 is proving that space exploration is advancing on every front simultaneously.