Live coverage: Falcon 9 disintegrates after launch

The Starlink 6-97 mission was the fifth Falcon 9 rocket launch of 2026, a rate of roughly one flight every 2.5 days. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 4:08:20 p.m. EST (2108:20 UTC).

SpaceX completed another another launch to add to the company’s Starlink broadband network Thursday. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 8:46 a.m. EDT (1246 GMT) Thursday from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The mission will be SpaceX’s 470th Falcon 9 rocket launch to date. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is targeted at 9:17 p.m. EDT (0117 UTC).