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SpaceX sends 28 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit on launch from Florida

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Liftoff occurred at 1:55 a.m. EDT on Wednesday (Jan. 18).

A white and black rocket lifts off into the night sky, lighting its launch pad and surrounding area by the light of its engines’ thrust.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink internet satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

Twenty-eight new SpaceX Starlink satellites are now in low Earth orbit, having launched from Florida early Wednesday morning (June 18).

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the broadband internet relays lifted off at 1:55 a.m. EDT (0555 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The 28 satellites (Group 10-18) were on track to be deployed about an hour after the launch.

Booster 1090 missions

O3b mPOWER-E | Crew-10 | Bandwagon-3 | 2 Starlink missions

At just 8 minutes into the flight, the Falcon 9's first stage successfully touched down on the droneship "Just Read the Instructions." The landing marked the completion of Booster B1090's fifth trip to space and back.

Wednesday morning's launch comes just two days after SpaceX sent 26 Starlink satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Station in California. The company now has more than 7,777 active internet relays circling Earth.

The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands atop the droneship “Just Read the Instructions” in the Atlantic Ocean after its fifth successful launch on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX is currently working to deploying a total of 12,000 Starlink satellites, but has plans, if approved, to grow the megaconstellation to more than 34,000 units in orbit.

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Robert Z. Pearlman
Robert Z. Pearlman
collectSPACE.com Editor, Space.com Contributor

Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com, a daily news publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018.In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History. In 2023, the National Space Club Florida Committee recognized Pearlman with the Kolcum News and Communications Award for excellence in telling the space story along the Space Coast and throughout the world.

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