SpaceX launch sets record turnaround from Cape Canaveral pad

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on Jan 14, 2026

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ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX is starting to get the ball rolling on its Florida launch card with its fourth mission of the year coming less than two days since the last launch, setting a record for its Cape Canaveral launch pad.

A Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-98 mission with 29 Starlink satellites lifted off at 1:08 p.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. It comes 45 hours since the 4:08 p.m. launch from the same pad on Monday.

It bested the previous record by nearly six hours at SLC-40, which previously stood at two days, two hours, 44 minutes between launches set between Dec. 9 and Dec. 11 last year.

This was the 13th flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic.

So far the Space Coast has only seen SpaceX fly in 2026, and every mission has been for the company’s Starlink program sending up 29 satellites at a time. According to statistics maintained by astronomer Jonathan McDowell, SpaceX has launched nearly 11,000 Starlink satellites since the first operational mission in 2019. Of those, nearly 9,500 remain in working order with about 8,200 in operational orbit.

Every launch so far has also been from SLC-40 as are the next launches that have been announced.

Next up is the Starlink 6-100 mission Sunday during a launch window from 5:04-9:04 p.m. with another Starlink launch planned Jan. 28.

NASA also announced that the next crewed mission, Crew-12, which for now is targeting a Feb. 15 launch, will be from SLC-40. Normally SpaceX uses Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A for its Crew Dragon flights, but did use SLC-40 once for Crew-9 in 2024. All four of SpaceX’s 2025 human spaceflights were from KSC.

NASA and SpaceX are in talks to see if Crew-12’s launch date could be moved up because Crew-11, coming back to Earth early because one of its four crew suffered a medical issue last week, is slated to depart the International Space Station on Wednesday. Undocking is on tap for 5:05 p.m. and a splashdown off the coast of California in the Pacific Ocean targeting 3:41 a.m. Thursday after more than an 11-hour flight home.

SpaceX flew all but eight of the record 109 orbital missions from Florida in 2025 with Blue Origin launching twice and United Launch Alliance flying six times.

ULA has its first mission of the year planned for Feb. 2 from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41 using its new Vulcan rocket for only the fourth time.

It’s flying its second national security mission after getting certified by the Space Force in 2025. This one, USSF-87, is taking a Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) spacecraft into space.

A date for the next Blue Origin New Glenn flight from Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36 has not been announced, but it’s for the company’s lunar lander, the Blue Moon Mark 1, an uncrewed vehicle that is aiming to touch down on the moon’s south pole.

NASA is also planning its Artemis II mission as early as Feb. 6 with launch options in early February, early March or early April. It will mark the first crewed launch of the Orion spacecraft and second ever launch of the Space Launch System rocket.

NASA is planning on rolling SLS and Orion on its mobile launcher out to KSC’s Launch Pad 39-B as early as this Saturday for what could be final tests before targeting a launch date.

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