SpaceX launches 100th Falcon 9 rocket from Florida in 2025

Update Dec. 15, 10:20 a.m. EST (1520 UTC): Added quote about weather conditions.

Update Dec. 14, 1:40 a.m. EST (0640 UTC): SpaceX confirms deployment of the Starlink satellites.

SpaceX launched its 100th Falcon 9 rocket from Florida this year with a midnight-hour flight amid very windy conditions.

Among those hundred launches, 71 of them were SpaceX launching its own Starlink satellites. Monday morning’s launch of the Starlink 6-82 mission added another 29 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into the growing megaconstellation in low Earth orbit.

After pushing back the launch multiple times in the night, the nine Merlin 1D engines sprang to life at at 12:25 a.m. EST (0525 UTC). The rocket flew on a south-easterly trajectory upon leaving the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 40.

On Saturday, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 30 percent chance for favorable weather during the launch window. Meteorologists pointed to a cold front expected to move through the state on Sunday that would combine with an area of “strong, high pressure centered over the Ohio Valley” resulting in “a very tight pressure gradient behind the front.”

“This will bring a surge of northerly winds on Sunday evening near the opening of the window, with winds likely to increase as the night progresses,” launch weather officers wrote. “The main concern is the low-level winds violating liftoff constraints, along with the low risk of a coastal shower violating the flight through Cumulus Cloud Rule.”

In response to a question on social media, Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s vice president of launch, said the flight was among the windiest during which they were able to fly.

“We don’t actually abort on absolute wind speed but rather on how the integrated rocket and [transporter erector] respond to the wind (which is what you actually care about),”Dontchev wrote. “Wind direction also matters given the localized wind effects from the surrounding structures.”

SpaceX flew the mission using the Falcon 9 booster with the tail number, 1092. This was its ninth flight following missions like CRS-32, GPS III-7 and USSF 36.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1092 performed a landing on the drone ship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ This was the 137th landing on this vessel and the 551st booster landing to date for SpaceX.