SpaceX kicked off December with predawn Falcon 9 rocket launch

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to begin the Starlink 6-86 mission. Image: Spaceflight Now

Update Dec. 1, 3 a.m. EST (0800 UTC): SpaceX landed its booster on the droneship.

SpaceX kicked off the month of December with a launch supporting its Starlink broadband internet satellite constellation.

Prior to this flight, SpaceX has launched it’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket a total of 152 times in 2025, with missions to assemble its Starlink constellation accounting for 110 of those. It closed out November with 13 launches in total, 10 of which were for Starlink.

The company launched the Starlink 6-86 mission from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for 2:44 a.m. EST (0744 UTC) on Dec. 1. The rocket flew on a south-easterly trajectory upon departing from Florida’s Space Coast.

SpaceX launched the Starlink 6-86 mission using the Falcon 9 booster with the tail number 1095. This was the rocket’s fourth flight after previously launching Starlink missions 12-15, 10-56 and 10-52.

Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1095 performed a landing on the drone ship, ‘Just Read the Instructions’, positioned in the Atlantic Ocean to the east of The Bahamas.

This was the 144th landing on this vessel and the 541st booster landing to date.