Florida Space Coast Set to Break Annual Launch Record This Week — Five Missions, Three Companies

Florida Space Coast Readies Record-Breaking Week of Launches

By Saturday morning, Florida's Space Coast could surpass its single-year launch record if five missions from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center proceed as planned. So far this year the region has logged 91 launches; a successful slate of flights this week would push that total beyond the previous mark of 93.

Week at a glance

The week began early Sunday when SpaceX lofted 18 rideshare payloads. Midweek features a Wednesday doubleheader from Florida: a SpaceX Starlink launch followed hours later by a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V mission. Blue Origin hopes to fly its New Glenn to send two spacecraft toward Mars on Friday, and SpaceX plans another Starlink flight early Saturday.

SpaceX: two Starlink flights and a busy manifest

SpaceX is scheduled to launch 29 Starlink satellites no earlier than 6:08 p.m. EST from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Launch Complex 40. The mission will use a Falcon 9 first-stage booster on its fifth flight; that booster previously supported missions including Crew-11 and at least one Starlink launch. A live webcast is expected to begin roughly five minutes before liftoff.

Another SpaceX mission is targeted for Saturday no earlier than 3:30 a.m. from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A, carrying 29 more Starlink satellites. Earlier in the week, at 1:09 a.m. Sunday, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 on a rideshare mission carrying one payload for South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development and additional customer payloads for providers such as Exolaunch, Fergani, Tomorrow Companies, Starcloud and Vast; that booster returned to Landing Zone 2.

United Launch Alliance: Atlas V for Viasat

At 10:24 p.m. EST Wednesday, ULA plans to launch an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 to place Viasat’s second satellite for its fleet into an elliptical geosynchronous transfer orbit. The Atlas V will fly with solid rocket boosters configured to meet the mission’s performance needs. ULA, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, will stream the liftoff on YouTube.

Blue Origin: New Glenn heads for Mars

Blue Origin is targeting a Friday launch window opening at 2:51 p.m. from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for its second New Glenn flight, flying in coordination with NASA following the vehicle’s first mission on Jan. 16. The New Glenn will carry two spacecraft, nicknamed Blue and Gold, on an approximately 11-month cruise to Mars where they are expected to conduct about an 11-month science campaign before entering orbit.

The mission also includes an attempt to recover the New Glenn's first stage on a barge in the Atlantic — a recovery that has experienced multiple delays since October 2024.

West Coast activity

Meanwhile, SpaceX plans a separate West Coast launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base’s SLC-4E on Wednesday at about 12:56 p.m. PST to deliver 28 satellites to orbit.

If all scheduled launches proceed this week, Florida’s Space Coast will set a new single-year launch record — a milestone that highlights the region’s central role in commercial and government space activity.