Update for Aug. 7: SpaceX stood down from a launch attempt on Aug. 7 to perform additional checks on its Falcon 9 rocket, the company posted to X this morning. SpaceX will now aim for a window that opens at 9:40 a.m. ET (1340 GMT) on Friday, Aug. 8.
SpaceX will launch its 100th mission of the year today (Aug. 8), and you can watch the action live.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 24 of Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet satellites is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Friday, during a 27-minute window that opens at 9:40 a.m. EDT (1340 GMT).
SpaceX will stream the launch live via its website and X account, beginning about 15 minutes before liftoff.
Friday’s launch will be the 97th Falcon 9 liftoff of the year already and SpaceX’s 100th mission of 2025 overall. The other three were suborbital test flights of Starship, the huge, reusable vehicle that the company is developing to help humanity settle Mars.
SpaceX also operates a third rocket, the Falcon Heavy, which hasn’t flown since October 2024, when it sent NASA’s Europa Clipper probe toward the Jupiter system.
If SpaceX maintains its current pace, it will launch about 165 times this year. That would break the company’s single-year record of 138, which it set in 2024. (Last year’s breakdown: 132 Falcon 9 liftoffs, two Falcon Heavy launches and four Starship test flights.)
More than 70% of this year’s Falcon 9 launches have been dedicated to building out Starlink, SpaceX’s broadband megaconstellation in low Earth orbit (LEO). Starlink currently consists of more than 8,100 operational satellites, and it’s growing all the time.
Project Kuiper, Amazon’s version of Starlink, is still in the early buildout stage. Today’s launch will be just the fourth Kuiper liftoff to date and will bring the number of satellites in the new constellation to 102.
Kuiper will eventually consist of over 3,200 spacecraft, which will be lofted on more than 80 launches over the next few years. A variety of rockets will do this work; in addition to the Falcon 9, Amazon has enlisted Arianespace’s Ariane 6, Blue Origin’s New Glenn and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V and Vulcan Centaur.
If all goes to plan on Friday, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, touching down in the Atlantic Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas.”
It will be the debut flight for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. That’s quite rare, as the company is known for its rocket reuse; its most-flown Falcon 9 has 29 flights under its belt.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will continue carrying the 24 Project Kuiper satellites to LEO. They’ll be deployed over a 7.5-minute span beginning about 56 minutes after liftoff, if all goes to plan.
