| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2025-08-11, 12:35 |
|---|---|
| Scheduled for (local) | 2025-08-11, 08:35 (EDT) |
| Launch site | SLC-40, Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA |
| Booster | B1091-1 (new booster!) |
| Landing | A Shortfall of Gravitas |
| Payload | 24 Kuiper Satellites |
| Payload mass | unknown |
| Customer | Amazon Kuiper Systems |
| Target orbit | LEO |
Webcasts
| Stream | Link |
|---|---|
| Space Affairs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmLgVD_vLdI (scrub 3, scrub 2) |
| Spaceflight Now | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5El5bejreo (scrub 3, scrub 2, scrub 1) |
| NASASpaceflight | https://youtube.com/watch?v=a4F4vPUNjqI (scrub 3, scrub 2, scrub 1) |
| The Launch Pad | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0cvb-uQSyI (scrub 3, scrub 2, scrub 1) |
| SpaceX | https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1954881017334161506 (scrub 3, scrub 2) |
| The Space Devs | https://youtube.com/watch?v=b8B_vApZq2g |
Stats
Sourced from NextSpaceflight and r/SpaceX:
☑️ First launch of B1091
☑️ 47th launch from SLC-40 this year
☑️ 7 days, 4:37:10 turnaround for this pad
☑️ 120th landing on ASOG
☑️ 490th Falcon family booster landing, 503rd Falcon recovery attempt
☑️ 97th Falcon 9 mission of 2025, 515th Falcon 9 mission overall
☑️ 100th SpaceX mission of 2025, 540th overall (excluding Starship hops)
☑️ 100th SpaceX launch of 2025, 549th overall (including Starship hops)
First use of B1091, the first Falcon Heavy center core capable of flying in a single-stick configuration supporting Falcon 9 launches, a configuration in which it will remain for a handful of launches before it will be reconfigured and support Falcon Heavy.
Mission info
Project Kuiper is a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit that will offer broadband internet access managed by Kuiper Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon. This constellation is planned to be composed of 3,236 satellites. The satellites are projected to be placed in 98 orbital planes in three orbital layers, one at 590 km, 610 km, and 630 km altitude.
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MECO, stage separation, M-vac ignition, and fairing separation.
This is the 28th and 5th flight for these fairing halves.
Liftoff!
The curse has been broken! :)
Recovery operations engineer Annie Cui is hosting.
Stage 1 landing confirmed! B1091 has completed its first landing!
Edit: M-vac shutdown, nominal orbit insertion. No further coverage of stage 2 at Amazon’s request.
also reducing risk as it will be flight proven
I’m slightly surprised they don’t always use Starlink sats as the payload on a booster’s 1st flight, these days.
And I’m slightly more surprised they didn’t do so in this case, as they were trying something new (using a FH centre core in a single-stick config).
surprised they don’t always use Starlink sats as the payload on a booster’s 1st flight
Yeah, that seems like it would be an obvious low-risk payload to fly on each new booster. Though in this case, they used a Starlink competitor’s payload, which is… an interesting decision? I presume Amazon must have given them the OK?
Seems that this will be, in a sense, the 1st time a FH centre core has ever been recovered! (Back to dry land in one piece.)
Going by this, the stats for actual FH launches are:
- 11 launches total
- 2 with failed centre core barge landings
- 1 with successful barge landing of a centre core, which then fell over due to heavy seas
- 6 with expendable centre core (but with side booster RTLS)
- 2 fully expendable
If Musk was as committed to comedy and “fate loves irony” as he says, he should have proceeded with the launch the previous day, instead of postponing it “due to unfavorable recovery weather conditions”, and let nature take its course!
That said, maybe nature will yet find a way to intervene! Best keep an eye on Port Canaveral to see if B1091 does actually make it back to dry land!
the 1st time a FH centre core has ever been recovered
Haha, I suppose it is, though it will not have been from a FH-like trajectory :)
