SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soars through the skies away from Florida to deliver 23 Starlink satellites during the Starlink 12-26 mission on June 13, 2025. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

Update 12:26 p.m. EDT: SpaceX confirmed the landing of its Falcon 9 booster on its droneship.

SpaceX launched its 490th Falcon 9 rocket Friday morning, which carried a batch of 23 of its Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit.

The mission, dubbed Starlink 12-26, launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The rocket lifted off at 11:29 a.m. EDT (1529 UTC).



The 45th Weather Squadron forecast an 85 percent chance of favorable weather at the opening  of the original, four-hour launch window, which opened at 7:45 a.m. EDT (1145 UTC). However, conditions drop to 60 percent favorable towards the end of the window.

“The Atlantic ridge will remain to the north of Central Florida through late week, with a continuation of low-level onshore flow,” launch weather officers wrote on Thursday. “Some decrease in column moisture through the atmosphere is noted into the weekend as another round of Saharan dust influences the local atmosphere.

“However, this regime will still support onshore-moving showers during the night and morning hours along the coast, with early daily seabreeze formation focusing more widespread shower and thunderstorm activity inland during the afternoon and evening hours.”

SpaceX used the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number B1078, which launched for a 21st time. Its previous flights include NASA’s Crew-6, ASTSpaceMobile’s Bluebird 1-5 and USSF-124.

It’s now tied as the fifth most flown booster by SpaceX, alongside B1076 and B1077.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1078 landed on the droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ This marked the 113th touchdown on this vessel and the 462nd booster landing to date.

Onboard the Falcon 9 rocket are 23 Starlink V2 Mini satellites, of which 13 have direct-to-cell capabilities. To date, SpaceX has launched 661 of these DTC Starlink satellites, with 273 of them sent to low Earth orbit in 2025 so far.