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Space
Space
Science
Mike Wall

SpaceX launches 21 Starlink satellites from Florida, lands booster for 15th time (video)

A white rocket lifts off above a plume of fire.

SpaceX launched another set of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida's Space Coast this morning (Jan. 13).

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink craft, including 13 with direct to cell capabilities, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 11:47 a.m. EST (1647 GMT).

The first stage booster returned to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff, touching down in the Atlantic Ocean on the drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas."

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink satellites lifts of from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Jan. 13, 2025. (Image credit: Future/Josh Dinner)

It was the 15th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Eight of its 14 flights to date have been Starlink missions, while two of them were crewed astronauts missions to the ISS on behalf of Houston-based Axiom Space.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster lands on the drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" on Jan. 13, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

The Falcon 9's upper stage continued carrying the Starlink spacecraft to low Earth orbit, deploying them about 65 minutes after liftoff.

Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky

This morning's launch was the sixth of 2025 for SpaceX. Last year, the company launched more than 130 Falcon 9 missions, about two-thirds of them Starlink liftoffs.

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