SpaceX launches 21 new Starlink satellites from Florida

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Launch occurred at 10:27 a.m. ET on Wednesday (Jan. 8).

a tall, black and white rocket lifts off into a mostly cloudy sky from a Florida launch pad
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink internet satellites lifts off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX via X)

SpaceX launched more of its internet satellites from Florida's Space Coast today (Jan. 8).

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink spacecraft, including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities, lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 10:27 a.m. EST (1527 GMT) on Wednesday.

A black and white rocket's first stage fires it engines to land on an ocean-based droneship

The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket approaches a propulsive landing on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX via X)

To plan, the Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff. It touched down on the drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

It was the third launch and landing for this particular booster, which had flown one previous Starlink mission, according to a SpaceX mission description.

The Falcon 9's upper stage continued to haul the Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO), where they were set to be deployed about 65 minutes after liftoff.

Starlink is the largest satellite constellation ever deployed — and it's continuously growing, as today's launch demonstrated. There are currently more than 6,850 active Starlink spacecraft in LEO, according to satellite tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell.

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Robert Z. Pearlman
Robert Z. Pearlman
collectSPACE.com Editor, Space.com Contributor

Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com, a daily news publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018.In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History. In 2023, the National Space Club Florida Committee recognized Pearlman with the Kolcum News and Communications Award for excellence in telling the space story along the Space Coast and throughout the world.