The Falcon 9 first-stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1078, made its ninth launch on this flight. It previously launched NASA’s Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station, USSF-124, and five Starlink flights.
About eight and a half minutes after liftoff, B1078 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions.’ In addition to this being the 300th Falcon booster landing overall, it was the 79th landing for JRTI and the 233rd droneship landing to date.
The 23 Starlink satellites onboard this mission add to the 5,851 currently in orbit, according to astronomer and expert orbital tracker, Jonathan McDowell. Before this mission, 610 Starlink satellites were launched to low Earth orbit in 2024 over 27 missions. Separation of the satellites is expected to occur an hour and five minutes into flight.
