SpaceX launch caps busy month, still on track to pass 100 Space Coast missions this year

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on Aug 31, 2025

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SpaceX remains on track to surpass 100 launches on the Space Coast for 2025, knocking out No. 70 on Sunday morning with four months to go.

A Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-14 mission with 28 satellites lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:49 a.m.

The first-stage booster made its 23rd flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.

It marked the ninth launch in August for the Space Coast, with eight from SpaceX and one from United Launch Alliance. Among those launches were the final crewed mission from Florida this year, the Aug. 1 launch of Crew-11, and the return of Boeing’s X-37B mini space shuttle to space for a classified Space Force mission. ULA’s lone mission was its first national security flight for its new Vulcan rocket.

The manifest also just this past Thursday saw the flight of SpaceX’s fleet-leading booster making a record 30th trip to space with another successful landing.

Elon Musk’s company has two more launches on tap this week to start would could be an even busier September, with Starlink missions planned from Canaveral’s SLC-40 on Wednesday during a window that runs from 7:06-11:06 a.m., and then Thursday from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A during a launch window from 7:18-11:18 a.m.

Later this month, Falcon 9 rockets are slated to launch a resupply mission with Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station on Sept. 15 and then a science mission with multiple payloads for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA no earlier than Sept. 23 as well as more Starlink flights.

SpaceX has flown all but four of the 74 orbital launches that have taken off from the Space Coast this year, which is closing in on surpassing the record 93 launches from all companies the region saw in 2024, a milestone that could be met by the end of October.

The pace continues to climb, with 2023 having seen 72 overall launches from Florida. Space Launch Delta 45, which oversees the Eastern Range and supports all rocket launches from the Space Coast, had stated it could support as many as 156 launches a year.

While not expected to hit that mark, SpaceX’s increased pace has also been paired with the recent return to a normal flight rate from ULA, which has had three launches so far this year, but plans to fly as many as five more among its remaining Atlas V rockets and growing supply of Vulcans.

Its next mission is on tap for the end of the month, when an Atlas V is targeting a Sept. 25 launch from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41 with 27 satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper, a competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin flew the other launch of the three providers that have flown from the Space Coast when it debuted its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket in January. Its next flight could also be at the end of the month, with the company still targeting no earlier than Sept. 29 to fly a pair of spacecraft for NASA to Mars.

SpaceX has also flown 38 operational missions of its Falcon 9 from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base in 2025 as well as four test suborbital missions of its in-development Starship and Super Heavy from its Texas site Starbase, including a successful flight on Sept. 26.

The company is awaiting approval for two Starship launch sites on the Space Coast that could see up to 120 launches a year when fully operational. These would be in addition to maintaining its launch pads for Falcon 9 and the larger Falcon Heavy.

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