Photos: Falcon 9 breaks apart en route to ISS

A year-and-a-half after announcing plans to launch two private citizens on a flight around the moon using the company’s Falcon Heavy rocket and Dragon capsule, SpaceX posted a tweet late Thursday announcing apparently revised plans to launch a “private passenger” on a moon flight using SpaceX’s new BFR rocket.

The mission marks the largest number of Starlink V2 Mini satellites launched in a single batch from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 3:11 p.m. PDT (6:11 p.m. EDT, 2211 UTC).

The development mission includes fewer additional mission milestones compared to the third flight with a focus on demonstrating the reusability model that Starship promises. Liftoff happened at 7:50 a.m. CDT (8:50 a.m. EDT, 1250 UTC), near the opening of a 120-minute window.