SpaceX continues to extend its rocket-reuse record.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 of the company’s Starlink broadband satellites, including 13 with direct to cell capabilities, is set to launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today (Jan. 10) during a 70-minute window that opens at 1:05 p.m. EST (1805 GMT).
It will be the 25th mission for the rocket’s first stage, setting a new mark for the company. Thirteen of the booster’s 24 flights to date have been Starlink missions, according to a SpaceX mission description.
SpaceX will webcast the launch live via X beginning about five minutes before liftoff.
Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky
If all goes according to plan, the first stage will come back to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff today. It will touch down in the Atlantic Ocean, on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions.”
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will continue carrying the Starlink spacecraft to low Earth orbit, deploying them about 65 minutes after liftoff.
Starlink is the largest satellite constellation ever deployed and is growing all the time. It currently consists of more than 6,870 active spacecraft, about 400 of which have direct-to-cell capability, according to satellite tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell.
Today’s launch will be the fifth Falcon 9 mission of 2025. Last year, SpaceX launched more than 130 flights with the workhorse rocket, about two-thirds of them Starlink missions.
