SpaceX to land rocket off coast of The Bahamas for 1st time during Starlink launch today
SpaceX will break new ground during a launch of its Starlink internet satellites today (Feb. 18).
A Falcon 9 rocket is set to send 23 Starlink craft to low Earth orbit today from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, during a nearly 3.5-hour window that opens at 6:15 p.m. EST (2315 GMT).
The rocket’s first stage will come back to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff, landing on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of The Bahamas. SpaceX has traditionally parked its drone ships in the open ocean, but it recently signed a deal with The Bahamas that will open new opportunities to the company.
“Our new landing collaboration with The Bahamas will enable Falcon 9 to launch to new orbital trajectories,” SpaceX wrote via X on Feb. 7.
Today’s flight will be the 16th for this Falcon 9 booster, according to a company mission description. Nine of its 15 launches to date have been Starlink missions.
You can watch today’s action live via SpaceX’s X feed; coverage will begin about 15 minutes before launch.
Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky
SpaceX has launched 20 Falcon 9 missions so far in 2025, 14 of them Starlink flights. The company has also launched one test flight of its huge Starship megarocket this year, on Jan. 16. It was the seventh liftoff overall for Starship, which is still in development.
The most recent Falcon 9 mission, which occurred on Saturday (Feb. 15), set a new reusability record: It was the 26th liftoff for that rocket’s first stage.
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