Replace 2:37 p.m. (1937 UTC): SpaceX safely landed the primary stage booster on the droneship.
SpaceX maintained its speedy tempo of launching an orbital mission on common each two days with its Falcon 9 flight from Cape Canaveral Area Drive Station on Friday afternoon. It additionally accomplished a record-breaking twenty fifth touchdown of an orbital class rocket.
Liftoff of the Starlink 12-12 mission from Area Launch Advanced 40 (SLC-40) occurred at 2:11 p.m. EST (1911 UTC). This will likely be SpaceX’s fifth Falcon 9 launch in 2025.
In a forecast issued on Thursday, the forty fifth Climate Squadron reported a higher than 95 % likelihood of favorable climate at liftoff, citing no climate constraints.
The Falcon 9 first stage booster for this mission, tail quantity B1067 within the SpaceX fleet, made a record-setting twenty fifth launch and touchdown try. It entered service in 2021, beforehand launching 4 flights to the Worldwide Area Station, the Galileo L13 mission for the European Fee and 13 earlier batches of Starlink satellites.
Slightly greater than eight minutes after liftoff, B1067 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Simply Learn the Directions,’ marked the 106th booster touchdown on JRTI and the 395th booster touchdown so far.
Among the many 21 Starlink satellites onboard the Falcon 9 rocket are 13 that characteristic Direct to Cell capabilities. Whereas the Federal Communications Fee (FCC) hasn’t granted full implementation of the DTC service, on Thursday, it as soon as once more approved emergency use for these impacted by the fires within the higher Los Angeles space.
Earlier within the day, SpaceX introduced it might be offering a month of free Starlink service to these impacted by the fires. It additionally despatched free kits to businesses, organizations and shelters serving to to reply to the lethal and harmful fires.
For these within the Los Angeles space, the @Starlink staff and @TMobile have enabled fundamental texting (SMS) via our Direct to Cell satellites. Now you can textual content family members, textual content 911 and obtain emergency alerts.
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 10, 2025