SpaceX gets back to work with Falcon 9 launch from Kennedy Space Center

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on May 28, 2025

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ORLANDO, Fla. — The day after losing another Starship during a test launch, SpaceX was back to its normal routine with a Falcon 9 launch from the Space Coast on Wednesday.

The workhorse rocket sent up another 27 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 9:30 a.m.

The first-stage booster made its 19th flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic.

The launch was the 45th from the Space Coast in 2025 with all but two coming from SpaceX.

Including California launches, SpaceX has now flown 64 Falcon 9s so far this year, surpassing the total flown in 2022. It flew 96 operational missions in 2023 and 134 in 2024, which includes Falcon Heavy missions, although no Falcon Heavy mission have flown so far in 2025.

Overall it was the 481st Falcon 9 launch and 420th reflight of a Falcon booster. The recovery landing marked the 453rd booster landing since the first in 2015.

Falcon 9 and the larger Falcon Heavy rockets remain the reliable rocket choices for SpaceX as it continues to develop the Starship and Super Heavy that flies for now from the company’s test launch site in Texas.

The ninth suborbital test flight launched Tuesday using a previously flown booster for the first time.

While the upper stage Starship managed to survive longer than the previous two test flights, which both disintegrated while flying just south of Florida on missions flown in January and March, SpaceX still lost contact with this mission’s Starship after losing control on its way to the Indian Ocean.

The company plans to launch from two sites on the Space Coast once it becomes operational.

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