SpaceX sunrise launch the 80th on Space Coast this year

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on Sep 21, 2025

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SpaceX’s sunrise launch from Cape Canaveral on Sunday was the 80th launch of the year on the Space Coast, which is on track to break the annual record and surpass 100 for the year.

A Falcon 9 carrying 28 more of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites on the Starlink 10-27 mission lifted off from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:53 a.m.

The first-stage booster made its 11th flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic.

SpaceX has flown 76 of the 80 orbital flights from either Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral so far this year.

United Launch Alliance has flown three others using one Vulcan and two Atlas V rockets while Blue Origin has flown once with the debut launch of its New Glenn back in January.

Sixty of the launches have been from among three pads — SLC 40, SLC 41 and LC 36 — at CCSFS while 20 have been from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A.

The next scheduled launch is Tuesday morning, when SpaceX has lined up a Falcon 9 from KSC for a 7:32 a.m. liftoff to send up three space weather satellites from NASA and the NOAA.

After that could be a busy Thursday morning with both a SpaceX Falcon 9 on a Starlink mission and ULA’s fourth launch of the year, an Atlas V flying up Starlink competitor Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites, scheduled to lift off from SLC 40 and SLC 41. SpaceX’s launch window runs from 4:36-8:36 a.m. while ULA’s window runs from 8:09-8:38 a.m.

Blue Origin is also potentially on tap to launch by the end of the month on New Glenn’s second-ever flight, trying to get a pair of Mars-bound satellites up for NASA no earlier than Sept. 29.

The Space Coast set a record with 93 launches in 2024, with SpaceX handling 88 and ULA knocking out five.

The Federal Aviation Administration recently approved SpaceX to increase its cadence of Falcon 9 launches to as many as 120 from Cape Canaveral, up from its previous limit of 50, while SpaceX is awaiting a similar approval for KSC missions to increase from 20 to 36.

ULA is aiming to ramp up to 24 launches a year while Blue Origin is aiming for 12. Other launch providers including Relativity Space and newcomer Stoke Space have been making improvements at their launch pads at CCSFS as well with more rocket activity possible in 2026.

The Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 45, which oversees the Eastern Range and manages juggling launch requests, said it had been prepared for as many as 156 launches in 2025, although that pace was not realized.

It could surpass that, though, in 2026 if all operators hit their paces.

Down the line, and depending on the results of a pair of Environmental Impact Statements being run by the Air Force and FAA for SpaceX’s requests for two Starship launch sites on the Space Coast, that could add another 120 launches to the manifest in addition to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy efforts.

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