Update 6:09 a.m. EST (1109 UTC): SpaceX confirms deployment of the 23 Starlink satellites into their intended orbit.
Under the glow waning crescent moon, SpaceX launched its latest Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a batch of its Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit.
The Monday morning mission further bolstered the Direct to Cell component of its Starlink constellation with 12 such satellites amid the 23 total onboard.
The flight followed a Starlink launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base late Friday night. Liftoff of the Starlink 12-1 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 5:02 a.m. EST (1002 UTC).
The forecast for the launch was as good as it gets. The 45th Weather Squadron didn’t anticipate any weather constraints and greater than a 95 percent chance of good conditions at liftoff.
The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1080 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a 13th time. It previously supported the launches of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid, four missions to the International Space Station (Axiom-2, Axiom-3, NG-21 and CRS-30), SES 24 and six previous Starlink missions.
With the Monday morning launch, B1080 broke SpaceX’s previous record for the turnaround of a first stage booster by nearly a week. A liftoff at 5:02 a.m. EST (1002 UTC) marked a turnaround of 13 days 12 hours 44 minutes and 20 seconds.
A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1080 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions.’ This marked the 99th booster landing on JRTI and the 374th booster landing to date.
Direct to Cell coming soon
The rollout of the Direct to Cell piece of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation has been a big storyline for the company throughout 2024. After being announced in August 2022, along with a partnership with T-Mobile, SpaceX has been continuously launching DTC Starlink satellites throughout the year.
The company’s first launch of the year, Starlink 7-9 on Jan. 2, 2024, carried six DTC Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. Since then, there have been 26 other launches with these satellites on board, including the Starlink 9-3, which failed to reach orbit due to an upper stage anomaly.
Following the launch of Starlink 9-13 late Friday night, Ben Longmier, SpaceX’s senior director of satellite engineering, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that there was “One launch left for Direct to Cell commercial orbital shell completion.”
However, while the majority of DTC Starlink missions have launched to a 53-degree inclination, the Starlink 12-1 mission is launching to a 43-degree inclination. It wasn’t immediately clear if Monday’s launch would allow SpaceX to reach the benchmark Longmier mentioned.
1 launch left for Direct to Cell first commercial orbital shell completion. https://t.co/ci3kl4vKO4
— Ben Longmier (@longmier) November 24, 2024
In a post on X on Oct. 30, he said that even when this first shell is completed, it would not be the end of DTC Starlink launches.
“We will continue to launch and improve the service after that in order to improve the coverage and latency for our partner telcos around the world,” Longmier said in a post on X.
As for what consumers should expect with an initial rollout of the DTC capabilities, Longmier responded to a user on X stating that it will included “normal texting,” adding “data later in 2025.”
