‘Falcon’ flies on Star Wars Day: SpaceX launches Starlink satellites from Florida (photos)

Living up to its Star Wars’ namesake, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took flight again, delivering 29 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) on Sunday, May 4th, 2025 — Star Wars Day.

The launch occurred at 4:54 a.m. EDT (0854 GMT) from Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

About 8.5 minutes later, the rocket’s first stage came back to Earth, acing its touchdown on the SpaceX drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas.” It was the 20th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a company mission description.

With 29 Starlink satellites on board, this was the largest number of the broadband-providing spacecraft on one Falcon 9 launch to date. SpaceX has now launched nearly 8,500 Starlink satellites to date, more than 7,300 of which remain operational in LEO, according to satellite tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell.