SpaceX lands Falcon 9 rocket in The Bahamas for 2nd time ever
When you purchase through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
SpaceX landed a rocket in the Bahamas for the second time on Thursday, February 19, 2026. | Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX landed a rocket in the Bahamas for the second time on Thursday February 19.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 29 SpaceX rockets Star link broadband satellites launched from Florida Cape Canaveral Space Station at 8:41 p.m. EST (01:41 GMT on February 20).
As planned, the Falcon 9 first stage returned to Earth a little over eight minutes later. He landed on the EspaceX the “Just Read the Instructions” droneship, stationed in the Exuma Strait in the Bahamas.
A Falcon 9 first stage rests on the deck of a SpaceX drone in Exuma Sound after making the company’s first-ever landing in the Bahamas on February 18, 2025. | Credit: SpaceX
This was only SpaceX’s second landing in Bahamian waters. The first occurred in February 2025also during a Starlink launch.
Most Falcon 9 boosters launched from the Space Coast land farther north, in the open waters of the Atlantic. But landing near the Bahamas has its advantages.
“Our new landing collaboration with the Bahamas will allow the Falcon 9 to launch into new orbital trajectories,” SpaceX written via in February 2025.
However, less than a month later, the upper stage of the SpaceX spacecraft Spacecraft a megarocket broke up over the Caribbean during a test flight, it’s raining debris on the Bahamas. The nation suspend SpaceX partnership in April 2025, saying it wants to carry out an environmental assessment of all rocket landings in the region.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 29 Starlink satellites launches from the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida on Thursday, February 19, 2026. | Credit: SpaceX
Previous Booster 1077 launches
Crew-5 | GPS III 06 space vehicle | Inmarsat I6-F2 | CRS-28 | Intelsat G-37 | NG-20 | TD7 15 | 18 Starlink missions
This work is finished. The Bahamas Civil Aviation Authority announced on Tuesday February 17 that it had cleared SpaceX to land rockets in Exuma Sound again.
Thursday’s landing was the 26th for this first stage of the Falcon 9, which bears the designation 1077. The upper stage of the rocket, meanwhile, was on track to deploy the 29 Starlink satellites in low earth orbit approximately 64 minutes after takeoff.
The spacecraft will join nearly 9,700 other satellites in the Starlink megaconstellation, by far the largest extra-terrestrial network ever assembled.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9:30 p.m. ET on February 19 with news of a successful rocket launch and landing.
