SpaceX Set for Early Morning Falcon 9 Launch with Starlink Satellites

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — SpaceX is gearing up to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 5:01 a.m. EDT (0901 UTC) on Saturday, July 26, 2025. This mission, known as Starlink 10-26, will deploy 28 new satellites into low Earth orbit.

The upcoming flight follows a brief global outage of the Starlink internet service, lasting over two hours. This outage prompted SpaceX founder Elon Musk to apologize on social media for the disruption. After the outage, Michael Nicolls, Vice President of Starlink Engineering, stated that the service had “mostly recovered from the network outage.”

According to Jonathan McDowell, an expert orbital tracker as well as an astronomer, more than 8,000 Starlink satellites are currently in orbit as a part of SpaceX’s internet constellation. The planned launch marks the 91st Falcon 9 flight of 2025.

The 45th Weather Squadron has provided a favorable forecast, indicating a 95 percent chance of good weather for the launch window. Meteorologists noted an “outside chance of an isolated cumulus cloud” overhead.

This Falcon 9’s first stage booster, identified as B1078, will attempt its 22nd launch. Previous missions of this booster include missions for the U.S. Space Force and multiple Starlink deployments. Approximately eight minutes post-launch, B1078 will aim for a landing on the droneship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ adding to SpaceX’s tally of successful booster landings.

The week has been eventful for Starlink, beginning with a successful launch of 24 satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on July 19. This launch marked an important milestone as the total number of Starlink satellites surpassed 8,000 for the first time. Furthermore, T-Mobile officially introduced its “T-Satellite” service on July 23, enhancing connectivity options for U.S. customers.

SpaceX first launched its initial 60 operational Starlink satellites in May 2019. Since then, the company has completed over 280 launches, expanding its service to over 115 countries, with recent additions including Sri Lanka and Chad in July 2025.

The Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, which is just one part of the continuous effort by SpaceX to advance space technology and internet accessibility.