{"id":355446,"date":"2025-12-18T05:37:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T05:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/355446\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T05:37:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T05:37:12","slug":"spacex-launches-starlink-missions-in-dual-coast-spaceflight-doubleheader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/355446\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches Starlink missions in dual-coast spaceflight doubleheader"},"content":{"rendered":"

SpaceX launched two more batches of Starlink satellites today (Dec. 17), in a pair of launches from both U.S. coasts.<\/p>\n

First up was a Falcon 9<\/a> rocket carrying 29 of the broadband internet relay units (Group 6-99<\/a>) into low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center<\/a> in Florida. The satellites were successfully deployed about an hour and five minutes after the 8:42 a.m. EST (1342 GMT) liftoff on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“Deployment of 29 Starlink satellites confirmed,” SpaceX<\/a> reported on social media.<\/a><\/p>\n

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 29 Starlink satellites launches from Kennedy Space Cener in Florida on Dec. 17, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)<\/p>\n

The Florida flight’s first stage booster (B1094) completed its sixth flight, landing on the “Just Read the Instructions” droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

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Then came 27 more Starlink satellites (Group 15-13<\/a>), riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) from Vandenberg Space Force Base<\/a> in California. Lifting off at 10:27 a.m. EST (1527 GMT or 7:27 a.m. PST local time), the mission was on track to deploy its payload about an hour after leaving the ground.<\/p>\n

The California flight’s first stage booster (B1063) performed its 30th propulsive landing, touching down on the droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

The California flight’s first stage booster (B1063) performed its 30th propulsive landing, touching down on the droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!<\/p>\n

The 56 (in total) Starlink satellites launched on Wednesday add to SpaceX’s megaconstellation, which now numbers more than 9,400 units<\/a> in orbit. The network provides access to the internet to areas around the globe where other options for connectivity is sparse, as well as enables in-flight wifi and cell-to-satellite service on select carries.<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s dual launches were SpaceX’s 164th and 165th Falcon 9 flight of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SpaceX launched two more batches of Starlink satellites today (Dec. 17), in a pair of launches from both…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":["post-355446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}