SpaceX blasts off into December with early morning Starlink launch from Florida (video)

SpaceX kicked off the first day of the last month of the year by lighting up Florida’s Space Coast with an early morning launch.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 29 Starlink satellites lifted off from NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Complex 39A at 2:44 a.m. EST (0744 GMT) on Monday (Dec. 1).

About nine minutes later, the mission reached its preliminary orbit, setting up the Starlink satellites (Group 6-86) to be deployed about an hour later.

“Deployment of 29 Starlink satellites confirmed,” SpaceX noted on social media at 3:50 a.m. EST (0850 GMT).

In the interim, the Falcon’s first stage booster (B1095) returned from its fourth flight to make a propulsive landing on the autonomous droneship “Just Read the Instructions” stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The 29 Starlink satellites add to SpaceX’s broadband internet network, which now has just over 9,100 operational units in low Earth orbit, according to satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

Monday’s launch was SpaceX’s 153rd Falcon 9 flight of the year, of which 110 have carried Starlink satellites. In total, SpaceX has dedicated 331 missions to date to populating its megaconstellation since 2019.