SpaceX launches two Starlink satellite groups 19 hours apart

A stacked group of satellites is seen just before their deploy into orbit above a blue and white Earth. — A stacked group of SpaceX Starlink satellites are seen prior to their deployment into low Earth orbit after launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX began and ended the day with Starlink launches.

The company sent two Falcon 9 rockets soaring, first from Florida before sunrise on Tuesday (April 14), and then from California after sunset the same day (by local time zone). Both launches were successful, according to SpaceX.

First up, were 29 of the broadband internet relay units (Starlink group 10-24) at 5:23 a.m. EDT (0923 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Then, about 19 hours later at 9:29 p.m. PDT (12:29 a.m. EDT or 0429 GMT on April 15), 25 more Starlink satellites (group 17-27) lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in southern California.

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a time lapse exposure captures the glowing arc from the launch and landing of a rocket over a body of water and pre-sunrise purple hazy sky. — A time lapse photo captures the glowing arc from the launch and landing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket over the skies of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)

Past Booster B1080 missions:

Ax-2 | Euclid | Ax-3 | CRS-30 | SES ASTRA 1P | NG-21 | 19 Starlink launches

Past Booster B1082 missions:

USSF-62 | OneWeb Launch 20 | NROL-145 | 16 Starlink missions

About an hour after each launch, the Falcon 9 upper stage deployed its cargo, sending the satellites on track to join the SpaceX low Earth orbit megaconstellation.

Both missions' Falcon 9 rocket first stages made it back to Earth to be reissued. Booster B1080 completed its 26th flight by landing on the droneship "Just Read the Instructions" based in the Atlantic Ocean. Then Booster 1082 touched down on "Of Course I Still Love You" stationed in the Pacific Ocean, raising its reuse tally to 21 flights.

After the doubleheader, SpaceX's Starlink network totaled more than 10,200 satellites, according to tracker Jonathan McDowell. The Vandeberg launch was SpaceX's 46th of the year out of 629 Falcon 9 missions 2010.

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.