Live coverage: SpaceX to surpass 2024 orbital launch record with Saturday Starlink mission

SpaceX is kicking off the weekend with a Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base Saturday morning. This will be its 135 Falcon 9 launch of 2025, breaking its record number of orbital launches achieved in all of 2024.

The Starlink 11-12 mission will add another 28 broadband satellites to the constellation of more than 8,700 spacecraft in low Earth orbit. SpaceX is targeting liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at 7:20 a.m. PDT (10:20 a.m. EDT / 1420 UTC).

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff.

SpaceX will launch the mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number, B1081. This will be its 19th launch after previously flying multiple NASA missions, including Crew-7, PACE and TRACERS.

Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1081 will target an autonomous landing on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You’. If successful, this will be the 160th landing on this vessel and the 523rd booster landing to date.

The mission comes nearly a week after SpaceX launched its 10,000th Starlink satellite to date. Prior to Saturday’s launch, SpaceX had more than 8,700 satellites on orbit, according to statistics maintained by astronomer and expert orbital tracker, Jonathan McDowell.