Private spaceflight continues its upward trajectory.
American companies launched 21 commercial space missions in June 2025, which was a new record for a single month, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The old record of 20 was set in November 2024.
“Operations during the record month include 21 launches conducted by four operators: Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance,” FAA officials said in an emailed statement.
“These occurred in California, Florida, Texas and New Zealand, and involved orbital, suborbital and commercial human spaceflight missions,” they added. (California-based Rocket Lab’s primary launch site is on New Zealand’s North Island.)
SpaceX was by far the busiest of the four operators, launching 15 of the month’s 21 missions. Twelve of those 15 flights were devoted to building out the company’s Starlink broadband megaconstellation in low Earth orbit.
June continued a very active 2025 for SpaceX, which has launched 81 missions so far this year. The company is therefore on pace to break its single-year record of 134 orbital liftoffs, which was set in 2024. (Those numbers don’t count the suborbital test flights of SpaceX’s new Starship megarocket, which launched four times in 2024 and has flown three times so far this year.)
SpaceX was also responsible for one of June’s two human spaceflight missions — Ax-4, which sent four private astronauts toward the International Space Station on June 25.
The month’s other crewed mission was NS-33, a suborbital tourist flight by Blue Origin that launched and landed on June 29.
