SpaceX to launch 21 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center – Space Flight Now

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SpaceX to launch 21 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center – Space Flight Now
File: A stack of SpaceX Starlink satellites, which included the first six with Direct to Cell capabilities. The batch was launched on the Starlink 7-9 mission, which lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on January 2, 2024. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is preparing to launch a batch of 21 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, including 13 equipped to provide text and data mobile phone services.

Transfer of the Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is scheduled for 10:27 AM EST (1527 UTC). If necessary, the launch window extends until 14:17 EST (1917 UTC) Wednesday afternoon.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning approximately one hour before departure.



On Monday, the 45th Weather Squadron predicted a 95 percent chance of favorable launch weather for Wednesday, with takeoff winds the primary concern. It also listed upper-level wind shear as a ‘moderate’ risk and booster recovery weather as a ‘low’ to ‘moderate’ risk.

SpaceX will reuse the Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1086, on this flight. It previously served as one of two Falcon Heavy side boosters on the GOES-U mission in June 2024 and then on Starlink 12-5 in December.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1086 will land on the drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’. If successful, it will be the 93rd booster landing at ASOG and the 393rd booster landing to date.

Year 2 for Direct to Cell

The first Falcon 9 Starlink launch in 2024 included the first six satellites to include Direct to Cell capabilities. Since then, SpaceX has launched 31 Starlink missions with DTC satellites on board.

As of January 7, 2025, SpaceX had launched a total of 401 DTC Starlink satellites, but 13 did not reach their intended operational orbits due to the upper stage anomaly experienced during the Starlink 9-3 mission on July 11, 2024 .

According to its Progress 2024 report published in December, SpaceX’s DTC network consists of “almost 350 satellites,” suggesting that some of those launched in 2024 may have already deorbited or not been accounted for the satellites that SpaceX considers part of its operational network. The company did not elaborate in its report.

SpaceX said it has “plans to double the number of direct-to-cell Starlink satellites by mid-2025.”

SpaceX said its DTC Starlink satellites “use innovative, custom silicon phased array antennas and advanced software algorithms to overcome the challenges of phone-to-space communications.”