SpaceX aims for afternoon launch from Cape Canaveral

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on May 14, 2025

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SpaceX has lined up another Starlink launch from Space Coast for early Wednesday afternoon.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 of the company’s internet satellites is targeting a 12:38 p.m. liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with backups available until 2:47 p.m. as well as on Thursday beginning at 11:17 a.m.

Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron forecasts a 95% chance for good conditions at the launch site.

The first-stage booster for the mission is making its fourth flight and will aim for a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic.

The launch would be the 41st from the Space Coast in 2025 with all but two coming from SpaceX.

The other two were from Blue Origin with the debut of its New Glenn heavy-lift rocket back in January, and United Launch Alliance with an Atlas V launch last month.

Blue Origin has yet to announce a date it might try for a second launch, but had stated earlier this year it would be in the spring. ULA has several more missions on tap this year including a potential second Atlas V launch in early June to fly up the second batch of customer Amazon’s satellites for its Project Kuiper internet constellation, a competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink. Amazon’s first batch on the April launch totaled 27, but the company has lined up more than 80 more launches to grow that number.

Project Kuiper’s constellation aims tot total more than 3,600 satellites by 2028. SpaceX’s Starlink, which already has had more than 8,500 satellites launched since 2019, has nearly 6,700 that remain operational in orbit, according to statistics maintained by astronomer Jonathan McDowell.

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