UPDATE: SpaceX announced March 3 that post-landing, there were issues with Booster B1086:

The first stage booster returned to Earth and landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean ~250 nautical miles off the coast of Florida. Following the successful landing, an off-nominal fire in the aft end of the rocket damaged one of the booster’s landing legs which resulted in it tipping over. While disappointing to lose a rocket after a successful mission, the team will use the data to make Falcon even more reliable on ascent and landing

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Déjà vu all over again: SpaceX launched another 21 Starlink satellites from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station this evening. Liftoff was at 9:24 PM EST, with Falcon 9 taking the southeasterly familiar path towards The Bahamas as has been the case with all other Starlink Group 20 launches.

Booster B1086 was on duty for its fifth mission this evening, which is completed successfully when it touched down aboard ASDS ‘Just Read The Instructions’ about 8.25 minutes after launching. Unfortunately, according to SpaceX, the booster was “lost” after “an off-nominal fire in the aft end of the rocket damaged one of the booster’s landing legs which resulted in it tipping over.”

Tonight’s landing was the 419th booster landing and the 112th landing on JRTI.

Twenty-five odd seconds after the booster landed, Falcon 9’s second stage achieved its initial orbit, and at T+ 00:53:58, the second stage refired its Merlin Vacuum engine in a brief orbit-rounding burn prior to payload deployment.

At 10:29 PM EST, SpaceX announced a successful payload deployment, marking the completion of another successful mission for the company, save for the loss of a relatively new booster.

Payload

Starlink satellites are part of SpaceX’s initiative to create a global broadband internet network. Some key facts:

Overall, Starlink provides high-speed, low-latency internet access, especially in rural and underserved areas to nearly five million customers in over 200 countries.

Starlink serves over five million customers in over 100 countries worldwide. The service currently has more than 7,000 Starlink satellites in orbit.

Launch Replay

Next Launch

SpaceX’s Starlink 12-21 is planned to launch early Wednesday morning.

• Organization: SpaceX
• Location: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
• Rocket: Falcon 9
• Pad: Space Launch Complex 40
• Status: To Be Confirmed
• Status Info: Awaiting official confirmation – current date is known with some certainty.
• Window Opens: Wednesday, 03/05/2025 1:00:00 AM
• Window Closes: Wednesday, 03/05/2025 5:31:00 AM
• Destination: Low Earth Orbit
• Mission Description: A batch of satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation – SpaceX’s project for space-based Internet communication system.