Update Jan. 6, 4:54 p.m. EST (2154 UTC): SpaceX confirms deployment of the 24 Starlink satellites.
SpaceX completed its first Starlink mission of the year on the first Monday of 2025. Onboard the Starlink 6-71 mission were 24 V2 Mini satellites headed to low Earth orbit.
Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 3:43 p.m. EST (2043 UTC), which was the end of the available three-hour window.
SpaceX didn’t bring its rocket into launch position at the pad until nearly 9:45 am EST (1445 UTC). Typically for launches at pad 40, the Falcon 9 needs to be vertical at least four hours prior to launch. There were blustery conditions on the Space Coast Monday as a cold front approaches with a strong wind warning in force at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It’s not clear if those winds contributed to the slip towards the end of window.
On Sunday, the 45th Weather Squadron issued a launch weather forecast indicating a 70 percent chance of favorable weather at liftoff. The primary listed concerns are for liftoff winds and the presence of cumulus clouds.
“A low-pressure system is currently sitting over central Arkansas and making its way eastward throughout the night and into tomorrow morning. A cold front associated with this system will progress into the Florida panhandle, and likely pass the Space Coast in the evening on Monday,” meteorologists wrote. “Increased wind speeds are expected ahead of the cold front during the primary launch window. Winds will be around 15-20mph out of the southeast and may gust up to 35mph, causing some concern for liftoff winds.”
The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, B1077, completed its 17th launch and landing. It previously supported three missions to the International Space Station (Crew-5, CRS-28 and NG-20), GPS 3 SV06, and nine Starlink missions.
Originally, B1077 was set to make its 17th flight supporting the launch of the Astranis: From One to Many mission, but suffered a pad abort on Dec. 21 and was swapped for B1083 to complete that launch days later.
A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1077 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions.’ This marked the 105th booster landing on JRTI and the 392nd booster landing to date.
In a 2024 progress report published by SpaceX, the company highlighted its Falcon launch rate, highlighting the number of flights performed by reused booster.
Starlink progression
SpaceX’s megaconstellation continues its meteoric rise in 2025 following another record-breaking year in 2024. The previous year saw 89 dedicated Starlink launches and another (NROL-126) that featured 20 Starlink satellites onboard.
In its new year projections, published in the 2024 progress report, SpaceX estimates it will launch more than 170 Falcon rockets, between Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.
According to astronomer and expert orbital tracker, Jonathan McDowell, as of Jan. 2, 2025, SpaceX has 6,895 Starlink satellites currently on orbit, of which 2,822 are the V2 Mini variety. SpaceX boasts that the latter “can handle four times more data” than their predecessors and “are equipped with SpaceX’s KA+E-band backhaul technology, including [its] Doppio Dualband antenna: a radio frequency payload that leverages SpaceX-designed silicon chips.”
The company claimed it ended 2024 with more than 4.6 million customers globally across 118 countries, territories and markets.
This past year, we activated Starlink in 27 new markets, and are now covering a global area home to 2.8 billion people, including those who live in some of the most remote places on Earth pic.twitter.com/vNfMrcgOao
— Starlink (@Starlink) December 31, 2024
SpaceX also offered some more detail about its constellation, stating that in 2024 it began launching a new version of the Starlink satellite, called the V2 Mini Optimized. It said those satellites included the new Doppio antenna along with “upgraded avionics, propulsion, and power systems, and are mass optimized for Falcon 9 to allow up to 29 satellites to launch on each mission – six more satellites per launch than the original V2 Mini design.”
Despite that statement, as of the end of 2024, SpaceX has so far launched 24 V2 Mini satellites at once. It’s unclear when it might attempt to fly 29 satellites, which might be dependent on the orbital parameters of a give mission. Spaceflight Now reached out to SpaceX to see when it began launching these upgraded satellites and how many are on orbit, but haven’t heard back yet.
SpaceX said its V2 Mini Optimized satellites are “nearly 22 percent lighter than the original V2 Mini satellites,” clocking in at about 575 kg (1,267 lbs).
The company said its latest satellites feature three Optical Intersatellite Links (ILSs), with each laser “operating at up to 200 Gbps, which together across the constellation of over 13,000 lasers form a global internet mesh that can connect customers anywhere in the world.”
The satellites continue to use argon Hall-effect thrusters to generate 170 mN of thrust, “which is 2.4 times the thrust and 1.5 times the specific impulse of those on first-generation Starlink satellites,” SpaceX wrote.
While the satellites are still manufactured in Redmond, Washington, SpaceX opened a 700,000-square-foot manufacturing site in Bastrop, Texas, which is about 35 miles east of Austin. That’s where SpaceX said it produces 70,000 customer kits per week.
During its upcoming seventh test flight of its Starship rocket, SpaceX intends to deploy 10 so-called “Starlink simulators,” which are meant to emulate the future Starlink V3 satellites.
source: spaceflightnow.com