SpaceX launched their 41st mission of 2025 this evening from Cape Canaveral when the company sent the Starlink 6-78 mission to low Earth orbit aboard Falcon 9. Liftoff was at 11:07 PM EDT and into clear but hazy skies skies on a seasonal night here on the Space Coast.
SpaceX launched their 41st mission of 2025 this evening from Cape Canaveral when the company sent the Starlink 6-72 mission to low Earth orbit aboard Falcon 9. Liftoff was at 11:07 PM EDT and into clear but hazy skies skies on a seasonal night here on the Space Coast.
Around 8.5 minutes after launching, Booster B1078 successfully completed its nineteenth mission when it touched down on ASDS ‘A Shortfall Of Gravitas’ east of The Bahamas. Booster and barge will now return to Port Canaveral, where B1078 will he offloaded and returned to SpaceX’s Roberts Road facility for preparation for its next mission.
At 12:17 am EDT, SpaceX announced a successful payload deployment, ending the operational phase of the mission.
The launch is SpaceX’s 41st launch of 2025, and the company’s 491st all time.
28 Starlink satellites, which will join SpaceX’s Starlink constellation that provides Internet connectivity in over 100 countries and territories globally.
| Mission | Atlas V 551 | Project Kuiper (KA-01) |
|---|---|
| Organization | United Launch Alliance |
| Location | Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA |
| Rocket | Atlas V 551 |
| Pad | Space Launch Complex 41 |
| Status | Go for Launch |
| Status Info | Current T-0 confirmed by official or reliable sources. |
| Window Opens | Wednesday, 04/09/2025 12:00:00 PM |
| Window Closes | Wednesday, 04/09/2025 3:00:00 PM |
| Destination | Low Earth Orbit |
| Mission Description | Project Kuiper is a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit that will offer broadband internet access. This constellation will be managed by Kuiper Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon. It is planned to be composed of 3,276 satellites, placed in 98 orbital planes across three orbital layers: one at 590 km, one at 610 km, and one at 630 km altitude. |
Sometimes the best editing is no editing.
Axiom Space announced today that the Ax-4 private mission to ISS will launch No Earlier Than May 2025. No specific launch date was given, and will be announced in the future as the launch draws closer. Commanded by veteran former NASA astronaut and current Axiom Space’s Director of Human Spaceflight Peggy Whitson, the crew of four will fly to ISS aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon.
The crew is scheduled to spend up to 14 days aboard the ISS, engaging in a variety of scientific research, outreach initiatives, and commercial activities.
In addition to Whitson, Shubhanshu Shukla, an officer in the Indian Air Force and astronaut with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), will serve as the pilot. Mission specialists include Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, a project astronaut with the European Space Agency (ESA) representing Poland, and Tibor Kapu from Hungary. Notably, this mission marks the first time astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary will visit the ISS, representing each nation’s first government-sponsored human spaceflight in over 40 years.
Ax-4 will be a busy mission, as it is slated to conduct approximately 60 scientific experiments and activities involving participants from 31 nations, such as the United States, India, Poland, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates, and various European countries. This marks the highest number of research initiatives undertaken on an Axiom Space mission to the International Space Station (ISS) thus far, highlighting the mission’s global importance and collaborative spirit in advancing microgravity research in low-Earth orbit (LEO).
The mission places a particular emphasis on scientific endeavors led by the countries represented in the Ax-4 crew, including the United States, India, Poland (in collaboration with the European Space Agency), and Hungary. The research conducted will enhance global understanding in areas such as human health, Earth observation, and life, biological, and material sciences, reflecting the space research capabilities of the crew’s home countries.
Axiom Space is also collaborating with research organizations and academic institutions to further investigate the effects of spaceflight on the human body and to explore how space-based research can lead to improvements in health and medical treatments on Earth. The mission underscores the significance of commercial and academic partnerships, as Axiom Space spearheads the development of a global research community and a sustainable economic ecosystem in LEO. The mission also sets the stage for Axiom Station, the first commercial space station, which will provide a permanent platform for research, manufacturing, and human spaceflight.
After a sluggish start to 2025, United Launch Alliance announced today that is planning to launch a tranche of Amazon Kuiper satellites on April 9, 2025 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The company added that the launch window is set to open at 12:00 PM ET and will last three hours.
This will be ULA’s first launch this year. It recently received USSL certification for its new Vulcan rocket, which is now awaiting payloads prior to its next flight.
Similar to SpaceX’s Starlink, Project Kuiper is Amazon’s initiative to provide global broadband access through a constellation of over 3,000 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).
Announced in 2019, the project’s goal is to deliver fast, affordable internet connectivity to unserved and underserved communities worldwide. Like Starlink, by leveraging LEO satellites, Project Kuiper aims to provide low-latency broadband services to a diverse range of customers, including individual households, schools, hospitals, businesses, and government agencies.
To achieve this, Amazon plans to deploy some 3,236 satellites at altitudes ranging from 590 to 630 kilometers. The company has secured agreements for up to 83 launches over a five-year period, utilizing various launch providers such as Arianespace’s Ariane 6, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V and later, Vulcan Centaur.
“We’ve designed some of the most advanced communications satellites ever built, and every launch is an opportunity to add more capacity and coverage to our network,” said Rajeev Badyal, vice president of Project Kuiper.
“We’ve done extensive testing on the ground to prepare for this first mission, but there are some things you can only learn in flight, and this will be the first time we’ve flown our final satellite design and the first time we’ve deployed so many satellites at once. No matter how the mission unfolds, this is just the start of our journey, and we have all the pieces in place to learn and adapt as we prepare to launch again and again over the coming years.”
27 Kuiper satellites will be aboard Atlas V for the KA-01 mission, which are slated to fly to a 280-mile orbital altitude.
The United Launch Alliance Atlas V has a 5-meter payload fairing, five Northrop Grumman GEM 63 solid rocket boosters, and a single-engine Centaur upper stage.
Standing approximately 62.2 meters tall, the Atlas V 551 can deliver payloads up to 18,814 kilograms to low Earth orbit (LEO) and 8,900 kilograms to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).
This configuration has been employed in notable missions, including the launches of NASA’s New Horizons probe to Pluto and the Juno spacecraft to Jupiter, and soon, Amazon Kuiper.
Atlas V is also crew-rated, and has carried astronauts to orbit on the Boeing Starliner CFT mission. While Boeing experienced issues with the Starliner spacecraft, its launch and orbital insertion were not one of them. Boeing CFT astronaut Suni Williams told Ars Technica’s Eric Berger recently that “The launch [on Atlas V] was awesome. Both of us looked at each other like, ‘Wow, this is going just perfectly.’ So the ride to space and the orbit insertion burn, all perfect.”
The Fram2 privately crewed mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center right on time at 9:46 PM ET yesterday. The launch came despite lightning threats in the Space Coast area, with visible strokes in storms south of the launch pad from a passing storm that dumped some much needed rain on the region.
The launch was successful and is SpaceX’s 37th mission out of year so far, out of 91 days since the calendars flipped into 2025. That’s a launch every 2.46 days, putting the company on a 147 launch pace for the year.
Around 8.2 minutes after liftoff, Booster B1085 completed its sixth mission when it touched down on ASDS ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’, which was stationed offshore in the Atlantic to await the booster.
Now in orbit, Fram2’s crew will begin their suite of experiments, observations and photo/filmmaking. Their return is anticipated to occur in three days.
Saturday evening, SpaceX will return to launching Starlink satellites.
| 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 | Saturday, 04/05/2025 10:40:00 PM |
| Window Closes | Sunday, 04/06/2025 3:11:00 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. |
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