SpaceX's launch from Florida early this morning (Aug. 25) was memorable in more ways than one.
The mission, which sent 29 Starlink internet satellites skyward from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 5:33 a.m. EDT (0933 GMT), was the 100th flight of 2026 for SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. It was also the 37th flight for this particular vehicle's first stage, setting a new reuse record for the company.
And we learned a few hours after liftoff that it was also the last-ever Falcon 9 Starlink mission to fly from the Sunshine State.
"From here on, Starlink missions out of Florida will fly on Starship. The West Coast team will continue regularly launching Starlink from Vandenberg [Space Force Base in California]," Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX vice president of launch, said via X this morning.
"In the last seven years, Falcon has flown ~260 Starlink missions from the Cape … can't wait until we launch that and many more with Starship!" he added.
Starship, which stands more than 400 feet (122 meters) tall, is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, and it's designed to be fully and rapidly reusable. Starship remains in the testing phase; SpaceX has conducted 13 test flights with the vehicle to date, all of them suborbital.
Starship currently launches only from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas. But the company is already building pads for the giant rocket in Florida, and it announced today that it plans to break ground next year on Starbase Louisiana, which it says will be able to support thousands of Starship liftoffs per year.
SpaceX thinks Starship will revolutionize spaceflight when it comes online. The company plans to phase out the Falcon 9 and its heavy-lift cousin, the Falcon Heavy, after that happens, so the final Falcon 9 Starlink launch from the West Coast may be coming relatively soon as well.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Florida with a batch of Starlink satellite onboard, passing by above New York City at 5:38 am ET. pic.twitter.com/Y8kYykAQK8August 25, 2026
The Falcon 9 made quite an impression on skywatchers during this morning's Starlink swan song from the Space Coast, creating a "jellyfish" in the sky visible to folks as far away as New York City. Indeed, some people in the Big Apple posted video of the Falcon 9 cruising over the city's famous skyline.
The jellyfish effect is a regular feature of Falcon 9 missions that launch shortly before dawn or not long after dusk. During these windows, sunlight illuminates the rocket's expanding exhaust plume while the sky itself remains mostly dark.
The buildout of the Starlink megaconstellation has driven Falcon 9's launch cadence to record highs over the past few years. In 2024 and 2025, for example, the rocket lifted off a total of 297 times, and 211 of those were Starlink flights. Seventy-seven of the 100 Falcon 9 launches this year have been Starlink missions.
