A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center Thursday evening on a milestone mission marking the 100th launch from the Space Coast this year.
The Starlink 6-78 mission, carrying 29 satellites for SpaceX’s internet service, soared spaceward at 10:39 p.m. EST (0339 UTC), the Faclon 9 rocket rising from a fog bank that had blanketed the area around launch complex 39A.
Earlier this month, missions by the three major launch companies operating from the spaceport broke the record of 93 liftoffs that was set in 2024. SpaceX has chalked up the lion’s share of the 100 launches so far in 2025 with 93 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket. United Launch Alliance has made five launches, four by its workhorse Atlas 5 rocket and one of its new Vulcan vehicle. Blue Origin flew its New Glenn rocket for the first time in January and for a second flight on Nov. 13.
The Eastern Range, operated by the Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 45 wing, is the busiest spaceport in the world, accounting for more than a third of all orbital launches in 2025.
Until 2020, the annual launch rate from the pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center only twice exceeded 25 orbital launches in a year. SpaceX, with its partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket, has driven the dramatic increase in launch cadence, accounting for 91 percent of launches from Florida.
Thursday’s Starlink delivery mission used Falcon 9 first stage booster B1080, which first flew in 2023 and is launching for a 23rd time. Eight minutes after launch, it landed on the drone ship ‘Just Read the Instructions’, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean about 365 miles downrange, east of the Bahamas.
Deployment of the Starlink satellites will come about one hour and five minutes after launch. This latest batch of V2 Starlinks will join more than 9,000 satellites already in orbit.
