A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 9:02:40 p.m. EST, carrying 49 Starlink satellites into orbit and marking a significant milestone for SpaceX’s broadband network. This launch brought the total number of Starlink spacecraft built and deployed to 2,042, including early prototypes and testbeds no longer in service. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, stated via Twitter that 1,469 satellites are currently active, with an additional 272 maneuvering toward operational positions. He also noted that laser inter-satellite links, designed to route data directly between spacecraft without ground station relay, would be activated soon.
The mission, designated Starlink 4-6, was the 35th dedicated Falcon 9 flight for the constellation. Originally scheduled for Monday night, it was delayed due to weather concerns at the offshore recovery site near the Bahamas. SpaceX also bypassed an earlier Tuesday launch window before committing to the later slot. Nine Merlin engines produced 1.7 million pounds of thrust, sending the 229-foot-tall rocket into a moonlit sky over the Atlantic.
Two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, the first stage shut down and separated, beginning its descent toward the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” stationed about 400 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral. The booster, tail number B1060, completed its 10th mission with a precise landing. First flown in June 2020 for a U.S. military GPS satellite launch, B1060 has now delivered 487 satellites across its career. SpaceX has achieved at least 10 flights with four of its boosters, with one reaching 11 missions.
The second stage continued the climb, delivering the payload into a target orbit between 130 and 210 miles in altitude at a 53.2-degree inclination. Deployment confirmation came after the rocket passed over a tracking station in Alaska, relaying telemetry that the satellites had separated as planned. Each satellite, weighing roughly a quarter-ton, will deploy solar arrays and use ion propulsion to reach a 335-mile operational orbit.
This was SpaceX’s third Falcon 9 launch of the year, following missions on January 6 and January 13. The company’s near-term schedule includes launching an Italian radar remote sensing satellite and another Starlink batch later in January. SpaceX’s long-term filings with the International Telecommunication Union outline ambitions for up to 42,000 satellites, arranged in five orbital shells. The current mission targeted one of these shells, designed to host about 4,400 satellites for global high-speed, low-latency coverage. The first shell, at 53.0 degrees inclination, was completed in May of the previous year.
As of early January, the Starlink network was operational in 25 countries and regions, serving over 145,000 users. The satellites are assembled in Redmond, Washington, alongside development of user terminals. Revenue from Starlink is intended to support SpaceX’s broader goals, including the development of the fully reusable Starship rocket, envisioned to replace Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.
The integration of laser interlinks represents a major step toward reducing dependence on ground infrastructure, enhancing coverage in remote areas and over oceans. For engineers and enthusiasts, the reusability demonstrated by boosters like B1060 underscores the economic and operational efficiencies driving modern launch systems. The precision of orbital insertion, the iterative satellite design process, and the scale of deployment all highlight the engineering depth behind SpaceX’s rapidly expanding network.