Live coverage: Falcon 9 Starlink mission marks 100th launch of the year from Florida’s Space Coast

A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center Thursday evening on a mission that will mark the 100th launch from the Space Coast this year.

The Starlink 6-78 mission, carrying 29 satellites for SpaceX’s internet service, is targeted to roar away from launch complex 39A at 10:39 p.m. EST (0339 UTC). Space Force meteorologists predicted near-perfect weather conditions during the four-hour launch window Thursday.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage starting about an hour prior to launch.

Earlier this month, missions by the three major launch companies combined to break the record of 93 liftoffs that was set in 2024. SpaceX has chalked up the lion’s share of the 99 launches so far in 2025 with 92 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket. United Launch Alliance has made five launches, four by its workhorse Atlas 5 rocket and one of its new Vulcan vehicle. Blue Origin flew its New Glenn rocket for the first time in January and for a second flight on Nov. 13.

Until 2020, the annual launch rate from the launch pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center only twice exceeded 25 launch attempts in a year. SpaceX, with its partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket, has driven the dramatic increase in launch cadence, accounting for 91 percent of launches from Florida.

Thursday’s Starlink delivery mission will use Falcon 9 first stage booster B1080, which first flew in 2023 and is launching for a 23rd time. Eight minutes after launch, it will land on the drone ship ‘Just Read the Instructions’, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean about 365 miles downrange, east of the Bahamas.

Deployment of the Starlink satellites will come about one hour and five minutes after launch. This latest batch of Starlinks V2 Minis will join more than 9,000 satellites already in orbit.