SpaceX Launches 28 New Starlink Satellites Amid Network Outage

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — SpaceX successfully launched 28 Starlink satellites early Saturday morning, marking the 91st Falcon 9 mission in 2025. The launch occurred at 5:01 a.m. EDT (0901 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40.

This mission, designated Starlink 10-26, took place shortly after a global outage that impacted Starlink users for over two hours. The launch was crucial to reinforce the Starlink internet constellation which now contains more than 8,000 satellites, according to expert Jonathan McDowell.

The weather conditions were favorable, with a 95 percent chance of a clear sky predicted by the 45th Weather Squadron. The Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1078, was on its 22nd flight and successfully landed on the droneship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas‘ just over eight minutes after liftoff.

SpaceX’s recent challenges included the July 19 launch of 24 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base, followed by a network outage that began on July 23. Elon Musk responded to the outage via social media, stating, ‘SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.’

Starlink Vice President Michael Nicolls explained that the outage was due to ‘failure of key internal software services.’ The Starlink account later confirmed that service had been restored.

This launch comes just days ahead of another planned mission for Tuesday night, July 30, where SpaceX aims to deploy another batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites. The upcoming launch is set for 11:37 p.m. EDT, and SpaceX is preparing for favorable weather once again.