CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — Florida’s rocket lovers got a rare treat as SpaceX launched its second liftoff on Saturday evening with a Starlink mission.

After leaving Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket sent more than 20 Starlink satellites to orbit at 9:30 p.m. ET.

The near-hour launch window opened at 9:02 p.m. ET but it was pushed back. The California-based company had until 10 p.m. ET until the launch window closed, stated SpaceX.

Liftoff conditions were good as the 45th Weather Squadron gave about a 95% chance of good launch conditions with the only concern being the thick cloud layers rule.

The Starlink 6-45 mission was the second SpaceX launch for Saturday night, with the first one sending up the Eutelsat 36D satellite.

The last time SpaceX did a double launch in Florida was in July 2023: The JUPITER 3 mission and a Starlink mission.

And if we are keeping score, SpaceX as a whole will have three launches on Saturday, with the other one, a Starlink mission, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Ready to launch

Not counting this launch, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster B1067 has 17 successful missions on its resume.

• CRS-22
• Crew-3
• Turksat 5B
• Crew-4
• CRS-25
• Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G
• mPOWER-a
• Satria
• Eight Starlink missions

After the stage separation, the first-stage booster landed on A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.

About the mission

Going to low-Earth orbit, 23 Starlink satellites will join the thousands of others to provide internet services across parts of the round Earth.

Starlink is a company owned by SpaceX.

Before this launch, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ Dr. Jonathan McDowell documented the following Starlink satellites stats.

• 5,677 are in orbit
• 5,610 in working order
• 5,162 are in operational orbit