SpaceX
SpaceX performed second Falcon 9 booster landing in Bahamian waters
On February 19, 2026, SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 rocket from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral right on time at 8:41 p.m. Eastern, carrying 29 new satellites into low Earth orbit. About eight minutes later, the first-stage booster touched down on the Just Read the Instructions droneship stationed off the Bahamas coast. This counts as the second time for the Falcon 9 booster, performing a landing in Bahamian waters.
This was the 26th mission for the booster, which previously supported various missions ranging from crew rotations to cargo. Placing the recovery ship east of the Exumas gave engineers extra flexibility on this southeast trajectory and helps dodge winter weather that sometimes shuts down Atlantic landings closer to Florida. Residents and visitors in the islands might have heard the sonic boom as the booster slowed down, which the company has announced with a pre-launch notice.
Falcon 9 lands on the Just Read the Instructions droneship off the coast of The Bahamas pic.twitter.com/h5Ju4ndXSj
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 20, 2026
In February 2025, SpaceX completed the first droneship landing off the Bahamas during a Starlink mission. That time, the same pad sent up 23 satellites, and the booster landed on the droneship in the same stretch of ocean.
It was the first international booster recovery of its kind, and locals got their first real look at the booster’s final landing sequence. SpaceX conducted this first launch after signing a formal arrangement with the Bahamas government around 2024 that lets droneships operate in those waters east of the Exumas.
The deal supports faster reuse of the rockets while giving the islands new opportunities. Tourists now watch landings from resorts, schools in the Family Islands tap into faster Starlink connections for classes and emergency teams, and the country hosts occasional space exhibits that were exclusive to the U.S.
Just days before this launch, Bahamian civil aviation authorities gave the green light to resume after a short pause tied to earlier Starship testing.
