Space 22 September 2025 - 27 September 2025

On Sept. 25 and 27, 2025, SpaceX sent two Falcon 9 rockets aloft from Vandenberg SFB in California, each deploying a batch of Starlink internet satellites. The Sept. 25 mission lifted off at 9:26 p.m. local time with 24 Starlink V2 Mini satellites Edhat Space. A first-stage booster landed on the droneship OCISLY about 8½ minutes later Space. Two days later, on Sept. 27 at 7:20 a.m. Pacific Time, Falcon 9 carried 26 more Starlink satellites into orbit Ksby. KSBY News reports that after stage separation the booster again returned to OCISLY for a precision sea landing Ksby. These launches marked SpaceX’s third and fourth launches in under 48 hours – an exceptionally high tempo reflecting its aggressive Starlink build-out.

September 25, 2025 saw an extraordinary launch doubleheader. In the pre-dawn hours, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 4:39 a.m. EDT carrying 28 Starlink internet satellites into low Earth orbit spaceflightnow.com. Just a few hours later at 8:09 a.m. EDT, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V roared skyward from a neighboring pad with 27 of Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband satellites onboard spaceflightnow.com. The rare one-two punch meant two orbital launches from one spaceport within 3.5 hours, treating spectators on Florida’s Space Coast to dual rocket trails in the sky.

Solar sentinel liftoff: The week’s biggest blast-off came early on Sept. 24, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared off Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center carrying a trio of spacecraft devoted to space weather research nasa.gov. In a single launch at 7:30 a.m. EDT, NASA and NOAA deployed the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and NOAA’s Space Weather Follow-On L1 satellite toward the Sun-Earth Lagrange point nasa.gov nasaspaceflight.com. This “fleet” will probe how the Sun’s charged particles and solar wind affect Earth and the broader solar system. “This successful launch advances the space weather readiness of our nation to better protect our satellites, interplanetary missions, and space-faring astronauts from the dangers of space weather,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy nasa.gov. The new missions will provide early warning of solar storms and help safeguard power grids, communications, GPS, and astronauts by monitoring the Sun’s outbursts nasa.gov nasa.gov. NASA’s heliophysics chief Joe Westlake noted that understanding the Sun’s influence is “critical because the Sun’s activity directly impacts our daily lives… from power grids to GPS” nasa.gov. With the Sun approaching a peak in its 11-year cycle, these probes promise timely insights to protect technology and