SpaceX’s launch from Florida early this morning (August 25) was memorable in more ways than one. The mission, which sent 29 Starlink Internet satellites skyward from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 5:33 a.m. EDT (0933 GMT), was the 100th flight of 2026 for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. It was also the 37th flight of the first stage of this particular vehicle, setting a new reusability record for the company. And a few hours after liftoff we learned that it was also the last Falcon 9 Starlink mission to fly from the Sunshine State. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Starlink Group 10-49 mission passes by lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center just before dawn in New York City after its launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 25, 2026, as seen from Hoboken, New Jersey. (Image credit: Getty Images) “Starlink missions from Florida will now fly on Starship. The West Coast team will continue to launch Starlink regularly from Vandenberg. [Space Force Base in California]”Over the last seven years, Falcon has flown ~260 Starlink missions from the Cape… can’t wait until we launch that and many more with Starship!” he added. You might like Starship, which measures more than 400 feet (122 meters) tall, is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, and is designed to be completely and quickly reusable. Starship remains in testing phase; SpaceX has conducted 13 test flights with the vehicle to date, all of them suborbital. Starship currently launches only from SpaceX’s Starbase site in South Texas, but the company is already building platforms for the giant rocket in Florida, and announced today that it plans to begin construction next year at Starbase Louisiana, which it says will be able to support thousands of Starship liftoffs per year. SpaceX believes Starship will revolutionize spaceflight when it becomes operational. heavy-lift cousin, the Falcon Heavy, after that happens, so the Falcon 9 Starlink’s final launch from the West Coast may also come relatively soon. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Florida with a batch of Starlink satellites on board and passed over New York City at 5:38 a.m. ET pic.twitter.com/Y8kYykAQK8 August 25, 2026 The Falcon 9 made a big impression on skywatchers during this morning’s Starlink. swan song of the Space Coast, creating a “jellyfish” in the sky visible to people as far away as New York City. In fact, some people in the Big Apple posted a video of the Falcon 9 sailing over the city’s famous skyline. The jellyfish effect is a common feature of Falcon 9 missions that launch shortly before dawn or shortly after dusk. During these windows, sunlight illuminates the rocket’s expanding exhaust plume while the sky remains mostly dark. 9 has reached record levels in recent years. In 2024 and 2025, for example, the rocket took off a total of 297 times, and 211 of them were Starlink flights. Seventy-seven of the 100 Falcon 9 launches this year were Starlink missions.
