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Winderman’s view: Heat in victory work through either/or stage with robust rotation

Fri, 02/20/2026 - 19:46

ATLANTA — Observations and other notes of interest from Friday night’s 128-97 victory over the Atlanta Hawks:

– For now, it appears it will start with the stagger, with so many options back in play for Erik Spoelstra with an injury-free roster.

– Which not only makes it appear it will be either/or with Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware, but also plenty of a similar either/or approach with Tyler Herro and Norman Powell.

– Neither Herro nor Ware started in this one, making the stagger easier for Spoelstra.

– In the first half, only in the later stages did we see Herro and Powell together.

– To maximize this roster, Herro and Powell can’t solely be splitting the minutes.

– This roster was built on the premise of more.

– Then again, Powell has the look of a player somewhat wearing down.

– So the Herro-only minutes could help in that regard.

– With Adebayo and Ware, it has never been as clear.

– With Ware again drawing an askance glare from Spoelstra.

– Even with Herro back, the Heat opened with a lineup of Adebayo, Powell, Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell and Pelle Larsson.

– It was the ninth consecutive game the Heat have gone with a different lineup from the previous game.

– Mitchell had been questionable prior to the game with a head illness.

– Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Ware entered first together off the Heat bench.

– Herro and Kasparas Jakucionis then followed together.

– With Myron Gardner making it 10 deep.

– With Gardner playing ahead of both Dru Smith and Nikola Jovic.

– And also no Simone Fontecchio in the rotation.

– Spoelstra ended the morning shootaround by putting an emphatic spin on what he hopes comes next.

– “I want them to enjoy this time of year,” he said of his players. ‘There’s been all the narratives all year long, but this is what competitors want. You want to be able to fight for something, compete for something. We have an opportunity in front of us, and we’re all looking forward to it.”

– He then continued the theme pregame.

– “We have a great opportunity in front of us,” he said. “Look, there’s been a lot of narratives around the league, a bunch of different things. We just see opportunity in front of us. We’re getting healthier right now, just at the right time.”

– He continued, “We feel like we have everything we need, to make a run, but we have to prove it. And that’s what’s exhilarating about it, is the competition.”

– He added, “We’re just looking forward to this final run. It’s the best time of year. The playoff picture is starting to become a little bit more clear. The games are really competitive. You can see what’s about to happen in the middle of April. And I know our guys are competitors and we’re looking forward to it.”

– Herro stressed he was just glad to be back.

– “Just happy to be playing basketball again,” he said. “It’s been a rough couple of months going through different nicknack injuries, nothing really like super big of an injury that’s going to affect my whole body, career long term.”

– Herro indicated at Friday morning’s shootaround that the plan was to play both ends of the back-to-back set that concludes Saturday at home against the Hawks.

– “Over the last like week or so, I really ramped up trying to get ready for tonight and tomorrow and really for the rest of the season after the break,” he said. “But it responded well and just got to continue to see how it feels after I continue to do more.”

– Spoelstra downplayed a specific minutes limit.

– “But we’ll be certainly mindful,” he said. “I’m not going to play him 38 minutes. He hasn’t played a game in a while. He doesn’t have the build-up of a lot of games, but he always keeps himself in great condition.”

– Spoelstra downplayed being whole as being a panacea.

– “You have to just manage whatever is going on,” he said of his team’s previous injury situation. “These are things that you can’t control.”

– Powell didn’t downplay it at all.

– “It’s something that we’ve been wanting to have all year long,” he said, “finally having it, and it’s an important part of the season. It’s really crucial for us to build chemistry and start to stack together some really important wins going down the stretch of this season.”

– Said Adebayo, “It’s always good to go into the second half of the season fully healthy. It’s time to make a push.”

– The game opened the 14th of the Heat’s NBA-high 17 back-to-back sets this season. The Heat are 9-4 on the second nights of such pairings.

Justice Department swiftly fires lawyer chosen as top federal prosecutor for Virginia office

Fri, 02/20/2026 - 18:06

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer picked by judges to serve as the top federal prosecutor for a Virginia office that pursued cases against foes of President Donald Trump was swiftly fired Friday by the Justice Department in the latest clash over the appointments of powerful U.S. attorneys.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the firing of James Hundley on social media shortly after he was unanimously chosen by judges to replace former Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. While the law says that the district court may choose U.S. attorneys when an initial appointment expires, the Trump administration has insisted that the power lies only in the hands of the executive branch.

“EDVA judges do not pick our US Attorney. POTUS does. James Hundley, you’re fired!” Blanche said in a post on X.

Hundley, who has handled criminal and civil cases for more than 30 years, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday evening.

The firing of Hundley is the latest reflection of tumult in one of the Justice Department’s most elite prosecution offices, which since September has been mired in upheaval following the resignation of a veteran prosecutor amid Trump administration pressure to prosecute two of the president’s biggest political foes, former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

That prosecutor, Erik Siebert, was effectively forced out and swiftly replaced by Halligan, a White House aide who secured indictments against Comey and James but was later deemed by a judge to have been unlawfully appointed. The cases were dismissed, but the Justice Department has appealed that decision.

Halligan resigned from the position last month after judges in the district signaled continued skepticism over the legitimacy of her appointment.

U.S. attorneys, the top federal prosecutors in regional Justice Department offices around the country, typically require Senate confirmation but the law does permit attorneys general to make temporary appointments for limited time periods. In several instances, though, the Justice Department has attempted to leave its temporary appointees in place in ways that have invited court challenges and drawn resistance from judges who have found the appointments unlawful.

Last week, a lawyer appointed by judges to be the U.S. attorney for northern New York was fired by the Justice Department after spending less than a day in the job. Judges in the district appointed Kinsella after declining to keep the Trump administration’s pick, John Sarcone, in place after his 120-day term elapsed.

Trump seethes over Supreme Court justices who opposed him on tariffs, especially those he appointed

Fri, 02/20/2026 - 17:59

By MARK SHERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s vision of the Supreme Court, in which his three appointees are personally loyal to him, collided with the court’s view of itself Friday when six justices voted to strike down Trump’s signature economic policy — global tariffs imposed under an emergency powers law.

The outcome led Trump to launch an unusually stark personal attack on the justices, with special rancor reserved for the two Trump appointees who defied him.

The case represented a challenge of Trump’s many untested, yet forcefully stated imperatives on everything from trade to immigration policy and the court’s ability to maintain its independence and, at times, act as a check on presidential authority.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do what’s right for the country,” Trump said in the White House briefing room several hours after the court issued its decision, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Trump said he expected as much from the three Democratic appointees on the court. “But you can’t knock their loyalty,” he said. “It’s one thing you can do with some of our people.”

Asked specifically about Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, who were part of the majority, Trump said, “I think it’s an embarrassment to their families, if you want to know the truth, the two of them.”

Vice President JD Vance, whose wife, Usha, spent a year as a law clerk to Roberts, echoed the president’s criticism, though he didn’t make it personal. “This is lawlessness from the Court, plain and simple,” Vance wrote on X.

Legal opposition to the tariffs crossed political lines, with a key challenge coming from the libertarian-leaning Liberty Justice Center and support from pro-business groups like the Chamber of Commerce.

Trump has had a checkered history with the court dating back to the start of his first White House term in 2017, though he won his biggest court battle in 2024, a presidential immunity ruling that prevented him from being prosecuted over efforts to undo his 2020 election loss.

In the first year of his second term, he won repeated emergency appeals that allowed him to implement major aspects of his immigration crackdown and other key parts of his agenda.

Presidential criticism of Supreme Court decisions has its own long history. President Thomas Jefferson was critical of the court’s landmark Marbury v. Madison case, which established the concept of judicial review of congressional and executive action. President Franklin Roosevelt, frustrated about decisions he thought blunted parts of the New Deal, talked about older justices as infirm and sought to expand the court, a failed effort.

In 2010, President Barack Obama used his State of the Union speech, with several members of the court in attendance, to take aim at the court’s just-announced Citizens United decision that helped open the floodgates to independent spending in federal elections. Justice Samuel Alito, who hasn’t attended the annual address since, mouthed the words “not true” in response from his seat.

Trump, though, crossed a line in the way he assailed the justices who voted against him, Ed Whelan, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a former law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, wrote in an email.

“It’s entirely fine for a president to criticize a Supreme Court ruling that goes against him. But it’s demagogic for President Trump to contend that the justices who voted against him did so because of lack of courage,” Whelan wrote.

Some presidents also have criticized justices they appointed for decisions they’ve made.

Following the seminal Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower told friends that appointing Chief Justice Earl Warren had been his biggest mistake, according to biographer Stephen E. Ambrose.

Objecting to a dissenting vote in an antitrust case, President Theodore Roosevelt once allegedly said of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, wounded in action during the Civil War, that he ”could carve out of a banana a judge with more backbone.”

But these remarks were conveyed in private, not at a livestreamed presidential appearance in the White House briefing room.

On a personal level, Trump has had a sometimes tense relationship with Roberts, who has twice issued public rebukes of the president over attacks on federal judges.

Trump didn’t mention Roberts by name on Friday, but he seemed to be assailing the chief justice when he said he lost the case because the justices “want to be politically correct,” “catering to a group of people in D.C.”

Trump used similar language when he criticized Roberts’ vote in 2012 that upheld Obamacare.

Similar to the timing following the Citizens United ruling, the president and some members of the court, dressed in their black robes, are likely to be in the same room Tuesday when Trump delivers his State of the Union address.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once nodded off during a presidential speech in the House of Representatives, attributing her drowsiness to some fine California wine. No justice is likely to be napping Tuesday night.

Scientists change how El Niño is labeled to keep up with spike in temperature

Fri, 02/20/2026 - 17:47

By SETH BORENSTEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The natural El Niño cycle, which warps weather worldwide, is both adding to and shaped by a warming world, meteorologists said.

A new study calculated that an unusual recent twist in the warming and cooling cycle that includes El Niño and its counterpart La Niña can help explain the scientific mystery of why Earth’s already rising temperature spiked to a new level over the past three years.

Separately, scientists have had to update how they label El Niño and La Niña because of rapid weather changes cause by global warming. Increasingly hot waters globally have caused the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this month to alter how it calculates when the weather pattern has flipped into a new cycle. It’s likely to mean that more events will be considered La Niña and fewer qualify as an El Niño for warming tropical waters.

Earth’s average monthly temperature took a noticeable jump up from the long-term upward trend connected to human-caused climate change in early 2023, and that increase continued through 2025. Scientists have many theories about what’s happening, including an acceleration of greenhouse gas warming, a reduction in particle pollution from ships, an underwater volcano eruption and increased solar output.

In a new study in Nature Geoscience this month, Japanese researchers look at how the difference in energy coming to and leaving the planet — called Earth’s energy imbalance — increased in 2022. An increased imbalance, or more trapped heat, then leads to warmer temperatures, scientists said. The researchers calculate that about three-quarters of the change in Earth’s energy imbalance can be attributed to the combination of long-term human-caused climate change and a shift from a three-year cooling La Niña cycle to a warm El Niño one.

El Niño vs. La Niña

El Niño is a cyclical and natural warming of patches of the equatorial Pacific that then alters the world’s weather patterns, while La Niña is marked by cooler than average waters.

Both shift precipitation and temperature patterns, but in different ways. El Niños tend to increase global temperatures and La Niñas depress the long-term rise.

La Niñas tend to cause more damage in the United States because of increased hurricane activity and drought, studies have shown.

FILE – Villagers fetch water from a makeshift borehole in Mudzi, Zimbabwe, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. as the United Nations’ food agency says months of drought in southern Africa, triggered by the El Nino weather phenomenon, has had a devastating impact on more than 27 million people and caused the region’s worst hunger crisis in decades. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli, File) Why weather cycles switch from warm to cool

From 2020 to 2023, Earth had an unusual “triple dip” La Niña without an El Niño in between. In a La Niña , warm water sticks to a deeper depth, resulting in a cooler surface. And that reduces how much energy goes out into space, said study co-author Yu Kosaka, a climate scientist at the University of Tokyo.

She compared it to what happens when people have fevers.

“If our body’s temperature is high then it tends to emit its energy out, and the Earth has the same situation happening. And as the temperatures increase, it acts to emit more energy outward. And for three-year La Niña , it’s opposite,” Kosaka said.

So more energy — which becomes heat — is trapped on Earth, she said. La Niñas more typically correspond to a one- or two-year buildup of extra energy imbalance, but this time it was longer so the difference was more noticeable and included hotter temperatures, Kosaka said.

“When there is a transition from La Niña to El Niño , it’s like the lid is popped off,” releasing the heat, explained former NOAA meteorologist Tom Di Liberto, who’s now with Climate Central.

About 23% of the energy imbalance driving the recent higher temperatures comes from this unusually long La Niña pattern, with slightly more than half coming from gases from the burning of coal, oil and gas, the study authors said. The rest can be other factors.

Scientist Jennifer Francis of the Woodwell Climate Research Center, which wasn’t involved in the study, said the research makes sense and explains an increase in energy imbalance that some scientists were attributing to accelerated warming.

Changing how El Niños and La Niñas are labeled

For 75 years when meteorologists calculated El Niños and La Niñas , it was based on the difference in temperature in three tropical Pacific regions compared to normal. An El Nino was 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than normal and La Nina was cooler than normal by the same amount.

FILE – A man carries usable belongings salvaged from his flood-hit home across a flooded area in Shikarpur district of Sindh province, of Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan, File)

The trouble in a warming world is what’s considered normal keeps shifting.

Until now, NOAA used the 30-year average as normal. It updated the 30-year average every decade, which is how often it updates most climate and weather measurements. Then the water warmed so much for El Niños and La Niñas that NOAA updated its definition of normal every five years, but that wasn’t enough either, said Nat Johnson, a meteorologist at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab.

So NOAA came up with an El Niño index that’s relative, starting this month. This new index compares temperatures to the rest of Earth’s tropics. Recently that difference between the old and new methods has been as much as half a degree Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit), and “that’s enough to have an impact,” Johnson said.

That’s because what really matters with El Niños and La Niñas is the way the waters interact with the atmosphere. And recently the interactions didn’t match the old labeling, but they do match the new method, Johnson said.

This will likely mean a bit more La Niñas and fewer El Niños than in the old system, Johnson said.

Here comes another El Niño

NOAA’s forecast is for an El Niño to develop later this year in the late summer or fall. If it comes early enough, it could dampen Atlantic hurricane activity. But it would also mean warmer global temperatures in 2027.

“When El Niño develops, we’re likely to set a new global temperature record,” Woodwell’s Francis said in an email. “’Normal’ was left in the dust decades ago. And with this much heat in the system, everyone should buckle up for the extreme weather it will fuel.”

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Trump administration to stand by tough Biden-era mandates to replace lead pipes

Fri, 02/20/2026 - 17:20

By MICHAEL PHILLIS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Friday it backs a 10-year deadline for most cities and towns to replace their harmful lead pipes, giving notice that it will support a tough rule approved under the Biden administration to reduce lead in drinking water.

The Environmental Protection Agency told a federal appeals court in Washington that it would defend the strongest overhaul of lead-in-water standards in three decades against a court challenge by a utility industry association.

The Trump administration has typically favored rapid deregulation, including reducing or killing rules on air and water pollution. On Friday, for example, it repealed tight limits on mercury and other toxic emissions from coal plants. But the agency has taken a different approach to drinking water.

“After intensive stakeholder involvement, EPA concluded that the only way to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act’s mandate to prevent anticipated adverse health effects ‘to the extent feasible’ is to require replacement of lead service lines,” the agency’s court filing said.

Doing so by a 10-year deadline is feasible, the agency added, supporting a rule that was based in part of the finding that old rules that relied on chemical treatment and monitoring to reduce lead “failed to prevent system-wide lead contamination and widespread adverse health effects.”

The EPA said in August it planned to defend the Biden administration’s aggressive rule, but added that it would also “develop new tools and information to support practical implementation flexibilities and regulatory clarity.” Some environmental activists worried that that meant the EPA was looking to create loopholes.

Lead, a heavy metal once common in products like pipes and paints, is a neurotoxin that can stunt children’s development, lower IQ scores and increase blood pressure in adults. Lead pipes can corrode and contaminate drinking water. The previous Trump administration’s rule had looser standards and did not mandate the replacement of all pipes.

Standards aimed at protecting kids

The Biden administration finalized its lead-in-water overhaul in 2024. It mandated that utilities act to combat lead in water at lower concentrations, with just 10 parts per billion as a trigger, down from 15. If higher levels were found, water systems had to inform their consumers, take immediate action to reduce lead and work to replace lead pipes that are commonly the main source of lead in drinking water.

The Biden administration at the time estimated the stricter standards would protect up to 900,000 infants from having low birth weight and avoid up to 1,500 premature deaths a year from heart disease.

“People power and years of lead-contaminated communities fighting to clean up tap water have made it a third rail to oppose rules to protect our health from the scourge of toxic lead. Maybe only a hidebound water utility trade group is willing to attack this basic public health measure,” said Erik Olson, senior director at the Natural Resource Defense Council, an environmental nonprofit.

The American Water Works Association, a utility industry association, had challenged the rule in court, arguing the EPA lacks authority to regulate the portion of the pipe that’s on private property and therefore cannot require water systems to replace them.

The agency countered on Friday that utilities can be required to replace the entire lead pipe because they have sufficient control over them.

The AWWA also said the 10-year deadline wasn’t feasible, noting it’s hard to find enough labor to do the work and water utilities face other significant infrastructure challenges simultaneously. Water utilities were given three years to prepare before the 10-year timeframe starts and some cities with a lot of lead were given longer.

The agency said they looked closely at data from dozens of water utilities and concluded that the vast majority could replace their lead pipes in 10 years or less.

Replacing decades-old standards

The original lead and copper rule for drinking water was enacted by the EPA more than 30 years ago. The rules have significantly reduced lead in water but have been criticized for letting cities move too slowly when levels rose too high.

Lead pipes are most commonly found in older, industrial parts of the country, including major cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee. The rule also revises the way lead amounts are measured, which could significantly expand the number of communities found violating the rules.

The EPA under President Donald Trump has celebrated deregulation. Officials have sought to slash climate change programs and promote fossil fuel development. On drinking water issues, however, their initial actions have been more nuanced.

In March, for example, the EPA announced plans to partially roll back rules to reduce so-called “forever chemicals” in drinking water — the other major Biden-era tap water protection. That change sought to keep tough limits for some common PFAS, but also proposed scrapping and reconsidering standards for other types and extending deadlines.

PFAS and lead pipes are both costly threats to safe water. There are some federal funds to help communities.

The Biden administration estimated about 9 million lead pipes provide water to homes and businesses in the United States. The Trump administration updated the analysis and now projects there are roughly 4 million lead pipes. Changes in methodology, including assuming that communities that did not submit data did not have lead pipes, resulted in the significant shift. The new estimate does correct odd results from some states — activists said that the agency’s initial assumptions for Florida, for example, seemed far too high.

The EPA did not immediately return a request for comment. The AWWA pointed to their previous court filing when asked for comment.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

Texas man was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent last year during a stop, new records show

Fri, 02/20/2026 - 17:08

By MICHAEL BIESECKER and JESSE BEDAYN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Newly released records show a U.S. citizen was shot and killed in Texas by a federal immigration agent last year during a late-night traffic encounter that was not publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security.

The death of Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, would mark the earliest of at least six deadly shootings by federal officers since the start of a nationwide immigration crackdown in President Donald Trump’s second term. On Friday, DHS said the shooting on South Padre Island last March occurred after the driver intentionally struck an agent.

The shooting involved a Homeland Security Investigations team that was conducting an immigration enforcement operation in conjunction with local police, according to documents obtained by American Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group based in Washington.

The records are part of a tranche of heavily redacted internal documents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the nonprofit obtained as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Though Martinez’s death on March 15, 2025, was reported by local media outlets at the time, federal and state authorities did not disclose that the shooting involved the team from HSI. In a statement Friday, DHS said the driver who was killed “intentionally ran over a Homeland Security Investigation special agent,” resulting in another agent firing “defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public.”

The department did not respond to questions about why it had made no media release or other public notification of the officer-involved shooting over the last 11 months.

Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, said her son was just days past his 23rd birthday when he and his best friend drove from San Antonio down to the beach for the weekend to celebrate. South Padre Island, located on the Gulf Coast just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, is a renowned spring break destination that attracts tens of thousands of college-aged partiers each March.

Martinez worked at an Amazon warehouse, liked to play video games and hang out with friends. His mother said he had never had any prior run-ins with law enforcement.

“He was a typical young guy,” Reyes told The Associated Press. “He never really got a chance to go out and experience things. It was his first time getting to go out of town. He was a nice guy, humble guy. And he wasn’t a violent person at all.”

Records show federal agents were assisting police

According to an internal two-page ICE incident report included in the newly disclosed documents, shortly after midnight, HSI officers were assisting South Padre Island police by redirecting traffic through a busy intersection after a vehicle accident with several injuries.

A blue, four-door Ford with a driver and passenger approached the officers, who ordered the driver to stop. The report does not say why. Initially, the driver didn’t respond to commands but did eventually come to a stop, according to the report.

Agents then surrounded the vehicle, telling those inside to get out, but the driver “accelerated forward” and struck an HSI special agent “who wound up on the hood of the vehicle,” the report said. An HSI supervisory special agent standing by the side of the car then fired his weapon multiple times through the open driver’s side window, and the vehicle stopped.

Paramedics already on the scene of the accident quickly provided medical aid and the driver was taken by ambulance to a regional hospital in Brownsville, where he was pronounced dead, according to the report. The passenger, also a U.S. citizen, was taken into custody.

The HSI officer who the report says was struck by the vehicle was treated for an unspecified knee injury at a nearby hospital and released.

The names of the two HSI agents involved in the shooting and the names of the two men in the car were all redacted from the ICE report, but Reyes confirmed the dead driver was her son. She said he was shot three times.

State investigation into shooting is still ‘active’

The report says the Texas Rangers responded to the shooting scene and took the lead as the primary agency investigating the shooting.

Reyes said she first learned her son had been shot by a federal agent, rather than a local police officer, about a week after he was killed. She was contacted by an investigator from the Rangers who she said told her there were videos of the shooting that contradicted the account provided by federal agents. DHS did not immediately respond to an email Friday about the claim that there is video showing a different account.

She said she was told by the investigator that the state report into the shooting was completed in October and that the case would be presented to a grand jury for potential criminal charges.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, which includes the Rangers, said in a statement Friday that the investigation into the shooting is still “active” and declined to offer more information.

Messages left with the office of Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz, an elected Democrat whose jurisdiction includes South Padre Island, received no response Friday. South Padre Island Police Chief Claudine O’Carroll also did not respond to requests for comment.

Attorneys for the family said Friday they have spent the past year pursuing accountability and transparency.

“It is critical that there is a full and fair investigation into why HSI was present at the scene of a traffic collision and why a federal officer shot and killed a U.S. citizen as he was trying to comply with instructions from the local law enforcement officers directing traffic,” attorneys Charles M. Stam and Alex Stamm said in a statement.

Agents involved were part of a border task force

According to the ICE report, the HSI agents involved in the shooting were part of a maritime border enforcement security task force typically focused on combating transnational criminal organizations at seaports. Over the last year, however, officers from across multiple federal agencies have been reassigned to prioritize immigration enforcement.

In January, Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother in Minneapolis, was killed in the driver’s seat of her SUV by ICE officer Jonathan Ross. Trump administration officials initially attempted to paint Good as a “domestic terrorist” who tried to ram officers with her vehicle before multiple videos emerged of the incident that cast doubt on the government’s narrative.

As in the Good case, experts in police training and tactics questioned why a federal officer apparently positioned himself in front of Martinez’s vehicle.

“You don’t stand in front of the car, you don’t put yourself in harm’s way,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a police use-of-force expert at the University of South Carolina. He added that there’s never a scenario where it’s justified, “because you don’t know whether this person is going to flee, and if he flees, you could be dead.”

Alpert said investigators will likely review any available body camera video or other footage to examine how swiftly Martinez moved the car forward, if he merely took his foot off the break or pressed down hard on the accelerator.

Martinez’s mother said she didn’t believe he would ever intentionally assault a law enforcement officer.

“They didn’t give him a chance,” Reyes said. “It’s so excessive. They could have done anything else besides that. It’s like they shoot first and ask questions later.”

Bedayn reported from Denver.

Daily Horoscope for February 21, 2026

Fri, 02/20/2026 - 17:00

General Daily Insight for February 21, 2026

When we can’t find stable ground, we must build it ourselves. Our actions today could reopen old scars, but if they do, those wounds probably need to air out once more to truly heal. This will be especially poignant around the Moon’s merge with thoughtful Chiron this morning. We’re ready to choose empathy. Luna then settles into Taurus at 6:30 pm EST, inviting us to take our time building the life we want. Success comes from a lifetime of responsible routines and healthy choices.

Aries

March 21 – April 19

You can channel courage into careful moves. The moody Moon conjoins tender Chiron in your sign, which impacts your 1st House of Individuality. Healing is possible, but you won’t be unchanged by your pains — and that’s okay! You might notice raw edges during introductions or while asking for help, but that’s a part of being human. Be honest when something hurts, and trust your loved ones to do the same. Consistent care teaches your body that you are (and will continue to be) safe.

Taurus

April 20 – May 20

Confidence grows as you trust your senses. The intuitive Moon is trotting into your sign, empowering your ability to get in touch with your soul and stay that way. Put your body in charge of your actions — this is not a day to do a ton of stuff that makes you uncomfortable. If you have a meeting, pick an outfit you love and keep your message simple, because ease in your skin helps others relax, too. Keep checking in with yourself throughout the day.

Gemini

May 21 – June 20

Patience is the key to ongoing success. Your 12th House of Subtlety welcomes the Moon, asking you to step back from noise so you have a chance to weave scattered thoughts into a gorgeous tapestry. If messages pile up, mute alerts and answer the main conversation first — it deserves your full powers of thought! A brief solo walk or a few hours alone should settle any nerves, allowing your wit to return in time. Protect quiet pockets, since silence helps ideas connect.

Cancer

June 21 – July 22

Morning soreness can lead you to evening satisfaction. Before Luna leaves your public 10th house, she’ll embrace cautious Chiron there, giving you a chance to grow your reputation without bowling over your softer side. You might feel sensitive about feedback from a leader, but they probably have excellent advice to offer. Even if they don’t, conversing with them could inspire valuable insights. Utilize teamwork moments to rebuild trust without draining your reserves. Offer a calm structure so progress can happen with care.

Leo

July 23 – August 22

A calm focus fuels your ambition more than chaotic passion. Let the Moon’s entry into your ambitious 10th house invite you to commit to your goals with your whole soul. Your intuition should be a superb guide at present, especially if you must present something in a public setting. Whenever you’re posting visible updates, keep it simple, because confidence helps people trust your direction. Keep the big picture in mind, even on minor tasks. Skipping steps isn’t the way to gain satisfying results.

Virgo

August 23 – September 22

Things don’t have to be so intricate — at least, not right now. Practical planning steadies curiosity as the Moon sails into your 9th House of Travel, turning big ideas into progress without overcomplicating details. If a class invite or adventurous plan calls your name, outline the next steps and set a deadline to ensure they actually happen. Your precise eye shines when you pace yourself, and you gain confidence as each box gets checked with care. Trust yourself to confirm your chosen path.

Libra

September 23 – October 22

Good fences make good neighbors, and that currently goes for all relationships. Strong rules make for strong connections with the Moon-Chiron conjunction in your amicable 7th house. These personal agreements don’t have to resemble those in popular culture — romantic or otherwise. They just have to work for you and your loved ones! If a promise feels lopsided or chores aren’t shared equally, talk about it. Fairness grows when expectations are specific and kind. Speak clearly and gently to nurture continued goodwill.

Scorpio

October 23 – November 21

Pain — emotional or physical — demands attention. That said, it doesn’t necessarily demand anger or conflict. Your 7th House of Partnership opens as the delicate Moon arrives, urging honest exchanges that respect privacy while naming what matters in a contract or friendship. If someone pushes for quick answers, don’t let them talk over you! Careful pacing protects trust. Your perceptive nature spots hidden pressure and opportunities to uncover deeper truths. Seeking shared clarity allows you and your loved ones to grow in tandem.

Sagittarius

November 22 – December 21

Progress is practically your middle name! The instinctive Moon slips into your 6th House of Work, nudging you to adjust routines so your energy stretches further. If your calendar feels packed, try to move a meeting or start with the toughest task first. That way, even if you can’t get anything else done, you can be certain you’ve done your best on whatever’s most vital. Don’t beat yourself up about not finishing every single task. Your body will thank you for setting a kinder rhythm.

Capricorn

December 22 – January 19

Steady patience supports your long-term plans. The home-centered Moon is in your 4th House of Security, where she conjoins vulnerable Chiron in the same zone. This offers an opportunity for domestic repairs (literal and metaphorical). It’s possible that certain tasks will bring up unpleasant memories, but such discomfort can be vanquished by simply completing the task. If necessary, you can delegate to someone trustworthy, or have them comfort you as you work through your painful history. Tend your base so your bravest goals are supported.

Aquarius

January 20 – February 18

Which comforts currently help you think more clearly? Your 4th House of Heritage welcomes the family-focused Moon, encouraging you to return to your foundational lessons. They may not directly apply to your recent life, but they probably have some sort of insight that you can put to good use. Maybe you no longer have toys to share during playdates, but you could have an appliance or power tool to lend to your loved ones. When you give support, you’re exponentially more likely to get it.

Pisces

February 19 – March 20

Understanding grows as conversations slow down. Your 3rd House of Communication welcomes the Moon, asking you to say less and mean more in all conversations (in-person or not). If a digital or written message feels off, you might want to pick up the phone and talk in a way where you can actually hear each other. Your empathy turns superficial chats into healing moments, and your peers should mirror back the kindness you offered. Speak softly and plainly, so confusion melts away.

US audit finds gaps in the FAA’s oversight of United Airlines maintenance

Fri, 02/20/2026 - 16:36

By RIO YAMAT

The ability of federal safety regulators to oversee airplane maintenance at United Airlines has been hindered by inadequate staffing, high employee turnover and the improper use of virtual inspections instead of on-site reviews in some cases, according to a government watchdog audit released Friday.

The U.S. Transportation Department’s inspector general said the Federal Aviation Administration lacks sufficient staffing and workforce planning to effectively monitor United’s large fleet. Past audits by the government watchdog also highlighted FAA challenges overseeing other airline maintenance programs, including at American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Allegiant Air.

The FAA declined to comment on the findings but referred The Associated Press to a letter it sent the inspector general’s office that was included in the audit report. In it, the FAA said it agreed with most of the recommendations and was taking steps to address them by the end of the year.

“FAA will implement a more systemic approach to strengthen inspector capacity and will take other measures to ensure that staffing levels remain sufficient to meet surveillance requirements,” the letter said.

The recommendations included a reevaluation of staffing rules, an independent workplace survey of inspector workloads and office culture, and improved training on accessing and using United’s safety data — a current gap that the report said currently keeps inspectors from fully evaluating maintenance issues and safety risk trends.

In a statement to AP, United said it works closely with the FAA on a daily basis in addition to employing its own internal safety management system.

“United has long advocated in favor of providing the FAA with the resources it needs for its important work,” the carrier said.

The inspector general’s office said the audit was conducted between May 2024 and December 2025, amid a series of maintenance-linked incidents at United.

It found that the FAA sometimes had its personnel conduct inspections “virtually” when it lacked staffing or funding for travel even though agency policy requires postponing reviews that can’t be done on site. Doing the work remotely can create safety risks because inspectors may miss or misidentify maintenance problems, the reported stated.

“Inspectors we spoke with stated that their front-line managers instructed them to perform inspections virtually rather than postponing inspections,” the report said.

The audit also found that ongoing staffing shortages at the FAA inspection offices tasked with United’s oversight have resulted in fewer inspections being conducted, limited surveillance of the carrier’s maintenance operations and an “overall loss of institutional knowledge.”

In March 2024, passengers had to be evacuated from a United plane that rolled off a runway after landing in Houston. The next day, a United jetliner bound for Japan lost a tire while taking off from San Francisco but later landed safely in Los Angeles.

In December 2025, a United flight experienced an engine failure during takeoff from Dulles International Airport before safely returning to the airport.

Associated Press writer Josh Funk contributed.

‘Hotdog’ in the halfpipe! Alex Ferreira finally wins his Olympic gold

Fri, 02/20/2026 - 16:33

By EDDIE PELLS, AP National Writer

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — The next time you see a senior citizen barreling down the mountain, maybe doing a double-cork while he’s at it, don’t think twice. That might just be your neighborhood’s friendly new Olympic champion.

Alex Ferreira, the freeskier who occasionally dons prosthetics to look 80 and calls his alter ego “Hotdog Hans” when he’s not kicking butt in the halfpipe, added a gold medal Friday night to the silver and bronze he’d won at the last two games to “finish the rainbow,” as his mother said.

The 31-year-old, a longtime fixture on the slopes and in the schools and rec centers in Aspen, Colorado, also put America in the win column for the first time in two weeks of halfpipe, slopestyle and big air action at the Livigno Snow Park.

“I’m going to drink copious amounts of beer,” Ferreira said when asked how he would celebrate.

United States’ Alex Ferreira celebrates during the men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
United States’ Alex Ferreira competes during the men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
United States’ Alex Ferreira reacts during the men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Estonia’s Henry Sildaru competes during the men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
United States’ Alex Ferreira reacts during the men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Show Caption1 of 5United States’ Alex Ferreira celebrates during the men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) Expand

He’s fun like that. This was a popular victory all across the park, squeezed out of a tight, brutal, all-night battle with Estonia’s Henry Sildaru — who skis slopestyle and big air, too, just like Eileen Gu — and Canada’s Brendan Mackay.

Bedlam and tears broke out in the stands after Mackay laid down the night’s last run, a solid one, but came up 2.75 points short of Ferreira’s winning score: 93.75.

When the Canadian’s mark came up, Ferreira bent to one knee and flashed a smile that lit up the mountain.

“Best moment of my life,” he said.

Asked what the best thing about the new gold medalist was, Mackay said there was too much to list.

“But honestly, the biggest thing that stands out about Alex, is that he is just an incredibly nice guy,” he said.

Among those near the medal stand to congratulate Ferreira was two-time Olympic titlist David Wise, who made the trip despite not making the Olympic team. He was ranked eighth in the world in halfpipe this season — a true sign of how deep the American team runs.

Also sharing hugs was Nick Goepper, the American three-time medalist in slopestyle who switched to the halfpipe in search of his first gold.

In the evening’s most visceral sign of what this contest really meant, Goepper threw caution to the wind on his last run and flung his body high above the halfpipe, his back slamming wickedly on the deck before he bounced to the bottom of the pipe.

He was lucky to walk away from that — not as fortunate that Mackay’s 91 on the last run of the night bumped him from third to fourth by a scant 2 points.

“To go for it in that moment took serious guts,” Ferreira said. “He is a real man.”

Drama involving Hess extended beyond the halfpipe

Clutch skiing and huge crashes were only part of the drama that played out among these halfpipe riders. The show started two weeks earlier.

American Hunter Hess opened the morning’s qualifying by landing a good run, then putting his thumb and forefinger in the shape of an “L,” in a nod to the eruption that occurred Feb. 8 when President Donald Trump called Hess a “total Loser,” in response to Hess’ saying “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”

“I had a week that was pretty challenging,” Hess said after qualifying, speaking of the threats and vitriol lobbed his way after the president weighed in. He finished 10th in the final and did not stop for interviews.

Ferreira fills in the final missing piece to a fantastic career

Ferreira, not surprisingly, spent the entire aftermath of the contest smiling. There’s more to come.

He has already shot six episodes of his YouTube streamer “Hotdog Hans,” an entertaining trip to the mountain in which the 80-something daredevil does truck-driver grabs and 1080s in front of unsuspecting resort goers who cannot believe their eyes.

“Just trying to bring some humor and funniness to the world,” he explained.

In between the fun and games lies a more serious pursuit.

Ferreira went 7 for 7 in World Cup events in 2024 — the sort of undefeated streak that really doesn’t happen much in sports, especially not in this one, where talent, like the medals, are spread very evenly across the United States, Canada, Estonia — the world.

Those sort of streaks, in Olympic off-years, can sometimes leave a guy wondering.

“You don’t want to peak two years before the Games,” said Gus Kenworthy, the 2014 slopestyle silver medalist who finished sixth in this one. “But I’m stoked for him that it worked out tonight. It was one of the best runs I’ve seen him do in a long time, maybe ever, and I’m happy.”

When Ferreira’s skis smacked down lightly on the fifth of five butter-smooth landings in the contest winner, he started whipping around his right ski pole — his signature move in what now goes down as his signature win.

A few minutes later, his sisters and parents were crying and he was on the top step of the podium, singing out loud as the “Star-Spangled Banner” played for the first time at the Livigno Snow Park.

He used to be the best freeskier in the world without an Olympic title. Not anymore.

“He had the silver, the bronze and he needed the gold,” said Alex’s mother, Colleen Ferreira. “He was driven. A year ago, he said he was going to do this, and he did it.”

AP Sports Writer Joseph Wilson contributed.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

US sets up gold-medal game against Canada at the Olympics by cruising past Slovakia

Fri, 02/20/2026 - 16:26

By STEPHEN WHYNO, AP Hockey Writer

MILAN (AP) — The much-anticipated but never guaranteed U.S.-Canada showdown for gold in men’s hockey at the Olympics is on.

Jack Hughes scored two goals, including one with a highlight-reel individual effort, and the Americans rolled into the final by routing Slovakia 6-2 in the semifinals on Friday night.

They’ll meet tournament favorite and top-seeded Canada on Sunday for the title, a year since the North American rivals played two memorable games against each other at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

That NHL-run event ended a drought of nearly a decade without an international tournament featuring the best hockey players in the world. Three fights in the first nine seconds in the first meeting put the 4 Nations in the spotlight, and their epic final won by Canada in overtime only built the anticipation for the Olympics.

After Canada did its part by rallying to beat Finland earlier in the day, the U.S. had no trouble against the Slovaks, who made an improbable run and were simply overmatched. They’ll face the Finns for bronze on Saturday night, looking for just the second hockey medal in the country’s history after getting the first with a third-place finish in Beijing in 2022.

United States’ Tage Thompson (72) celebrates with Matthew Tkachuk (19) and Jack Eichel (9) after Thompson scored against Slovakia during the first period of a men’s ice hockey semifinal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
United States’ Tage Thompson skates past the bench after scoring a goal against Slovakia during the first period of a men’s ice hockey semifinal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
United States’ Dylan Larkin (21) celebrates after scoring the opening goal during a men’s ice hockey semifinal game between United States and Slovakia at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
United States’ Jack Hughes (86) celebrates after scoring his side’s third goal during a men’s ice hockey semifinal game between United States and Slovakia at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
United States’ Dylan Larkin (21) celebrates after scoring the opening goal during a men’s ice hockey semifinal game between United States and Slovakia at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Show Caption1 of 5United States’ Tage Thompson (72) celebrates with Matthew Tkachuk (19) and Jack Eichel (9) after Thompson scored against Slovakia during the first period of a men’s ice hockey semifinal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Expand

The U.S. is playing for gold after the semifinals were a much easier go than the quarterfinals against Sweden, when overtime was needed to survive a scare. Dylan Larkin, Tage Thompson, Hughes and Eichel scored the four goals on 23 shots that chased Samuel Hlavaj out of Slovakia’s net past the midway point of the second period.

Thompson, one of just a handful of newcomers who did not play at the 4 Nations, exited later in the second after blocking a shot. He was held out the rest of the way, according to the NBC broadcast.

Hughes got his second just after a power play expired, and Brady Tkachuk scored on a breakaway with just over nine minutes left to provide some more breathing room.

Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck did his job as his teammates outshot Slovakia by a substantial margin. Everything he has done at the Olympics has validated coach Mike Sullivan’s decision to go with Hellebuyck as the U.S. starter over Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman.

The U.S. last reached the final in 2010 when it lost to Canada in overtime on Sidney Crosby’s famous golden goal. Crosby’s status is uncertain this time after getting injured in the quarterfinals Wednesday and not playing Friday against Finland.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Today in History: February 20, Thousands attend pro-Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden

Fri, 02/20/2026 - 02:00

Today is Friday, Feb. 20, the 51st day of 2026. There are 314 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 20, 1939, more than 20,000 people attended a rally held by the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization, at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Also on this date:

In 1792, President George Washington signed an act creating the United States Post Office Department, the predecessor of the U.S. Postal Service.

In 1862, William Wallace Lincoln, the 11-year-old son of President Abraham Lincoln and first lady Mary Todd Lincoln, died at the White House from what was believed to be typhoid fever.

In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, upheld, 7-2, compulsory vaccination laws intended to protect the public’s health.

In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded “idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, epileptics, insane persons,” among others, from being admitted to the United States.

In 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, circling the globe three times aboard Project Mercury’s Friendship 7 spacecraft in a flight lasting 4 hours and 55 minutes before splashing down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1965, America’s Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed into the moon’s surface, as planned, after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface.

In 1998, American Tara Lipinski, age 15, became the youngest-ever Olympic figure skating gold medalist when she won the ladies’ title at the Nagano (NAH’-guh-noh) Olympic Winter Games; American teammate Michelle Kwan took silver.

In 2003, a fire sparked by pyrotechnics broke out during a concert by the rock group Great White at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, killing 100 people and injuring over 200 others.

In 2016, a Michigan man shot and killed six strangers and wounded two others over several hours in the Kalamazoo area in between picking up passengers for a ride service. (Jason Dalton pleaded guilty in 2019 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.)

Today’s birthdays:

Racing Hall of Famer Roger Penske is 89.
Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito is 84.
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is 84.
Film director Mike Leigh is 83.
Actor Brenda Blethyn is 80.
Actor Sandy Duncan is 80.
Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley is 63.
Model Cindy Crawford is 60.
Actor Andrew Shue is 59.
Actor Lili Taylor is 59.
Singer Brian Littrell (Backstreet Boys) is 51.
Actor Lauren Ambrose is 48.
Actor Jay Hernandez is 48.
MLB pitcher Justin Verlander is 43.
Comedian-TV host Trevor Noah is 42.
Actor Miles Teller is 39.
Singer Rihanna is 38.
Singer-actor Olivia Rodrigo is 23.

Eric Dane, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Euphoria’ star, dies at 53

Thu, 02/19/2026 - 19:33

By MARIA SHERMAN

NEW YORK (AP) — Eric Dane, the celebrated actor best known for his roles on “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Euphoria” and who later in life became advocate for ALS awareness, died Thursday. He was 53.

His representatives said Dane died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known also as Lou Gehrig’s disease, less than a year after he announced his diagnosis.

“He spent his final days surrounded by dear friends, his devoted wife, and his two beautiful daughters, Billie and Georgia, who were the center of his world,” said a statement that requested privacy for his family. “Throughout his journey with ALS, Eric became a passionate advocate for awareness and research, determined to make a difference for others facing the same fight. He will be deeply missed, and lovingly remembered always. Eric adored his fans and is forever grateful for the outpouring of love and support he’s received.”

Dane was born on November 9, 1972 and raised in California. His father, a Navy man, died of a gunshot wound when he was 7. After high school, he moved to Los Angeles to purse acting, landing guest roles on shows like “Saved by the Bell,” “Married…With Children,” “Charmed” and “X-Men: the Last Stand,” and one season of the short-lived medical drama “Gideon’s Crossing.”

His big break arrived in the mid-2000s, when he was cast as Dr. Mark Sloan, a.k.a. McSteamy, on the ABC medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” a role he would play from 2006 until 2012 and reprise in 2021. In 2019, he did a complete 180 and became Cal Jacobs, a troubled married man, in HBO’s provocative drama, “Euphoria,” a role he continued in up until his death.

Dane also starred as Tom Chandler, the captain of a U.S. Navy destroyer at sea after a global catastrophe wiped out most of the world’s population, in the TNT drama “The Last Ship.” In 2017, production was halted as Dane battled depression.

In April 2025, Dane announced he had been diagnosed with ALS, a progressive disease that attacks nerve cells controlling muscles throughout the body.

ALS gradually destroys the nerve cells and connections needed to walk, talk, speak and breathe. Most patients die within three to five years of a diagnosis.

Dane became an advocate for ALS awareness, speaking a news conference in Washington on health insurance prior authorization. “Some of you may know me from TV shows, such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” which I play a doctor. But I am here today to speak briefly as a patient battling ALS,” he said in June 2025. In September of that year, the ALS Network named Dane the recipient of their advocate of the year award, recognizing his commitment to raising awareness and support for people living with ALS.

A memoir by Dane is scheduled to be published in 2026. “Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments” will be released by Maria Shriver’s The Open Field, a Penguin Random House imprint. According to Open Field, Dane will look back upon key moments in his life, from his first day at work on “Grey’s Anatomy” to the births of his two daughters and learning that he has ALS.

“I want to capture the moments that shaped me — the beautiful days, the hard ones, the ones I never took for granted — so that if nothing else, people who read it will remember what it means to live with heart,” Dane said in a statement around the book’s announcement. “If sharing this helps someone find meaning in their own days, then my story is worth telling.”

Space Coast launch schedule

Thu, 02/19/2026 - 19:00

The Space Coast ended 2025 with a record 109 launches from SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin. 2026 could see a similar number as all three ramp up plans plus NASA launches the Space Launch System rocket on Artemis II.

Check back for the latest information on upcoming launches.

By The Numbers:

2026: 11 Space Coast orbital launches (updated Feb. 19) | 11 from Cape Canaveral, 0 from KSC | 10 from SpaceX (10 Falcon 9), 1 from ULA (0 Atlas V, 1 Vulcan), 0 from Blue Origin (0 from New Glenn) | 1 human spaceflight (Crew-12)

2025: 109 Space Coast orbital launches, 1 hypersonic missile | 83 from Cape Canaveral, 26 from KSC | 101 from SpaceX (101 Falcon 9), 6 from ULA (5 Atlas V, 1 Vulcan), 2 from Blue Origin (New Glenn on NG-1, NG-2) | 4 human spaceflights (Crew-10, Fram2, Ax-4, Crew-11)

2024: 93 Space Coast launches | 67 from Cape Canaveral, 26 from KSC | 88 from SpaceX (86 Falcon 9, 2 Falcon Heavy), 5 from ULA (2 Vulcan, 1 Delta IV Heavy, 2 Atlas V) | 5 human spaceflights (Axiom Space Ax-3, SpaceX Crew-8, Boeing Crew Flight Test, Polaris Dawn | Crew-9)

2023: 72 Space Coast launches | 59 from Cape Canaveral, 13 from KSC | 68 from SpaceX (63 Falcon 9s, 5 Falcon Heavy), 3 from United Launch Alliance (1 Delta IV Heavy, 2 Atlas V), 1 from Relativity Space | 3 human spaceflights (Crew-6, Ax-2, Crew-7)

Details on past launches can be found at the end of file.

MOST RECENT LAUNCHES

Feb. 18: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-36 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:41 p.m. This was the 26th flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on a droneship stationed in the Atlantic off the coast of the Bahamas, only the second time for the more southern landing destination. Read more.

UPCOMING: TBD IN 2026

Feb. 21-22: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-104 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during 9:04 p.m.-1:04 a.m. launch window. This will be the fleet-leading 33rd flight of the first-stage booster, which will aim for a recovery landing downrange on a droneship stationed in the Atlantic.

Feb. 24: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-110 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during launch window from 3:56-7:56 p.m. This will be the 10th flight of the first-stage booster, which will aim for a recovery landing downrange on a droneship stationed in the Atlantic.

Feb. 27: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-108 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during a launch window TBD. This will be the 30th flight of the first-stage booster, which will aim for a recovery landing downrange on a droneship stationed in the Atlantic.

March 2: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-41 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during a launch window TBD. This will be the 26th flight of the first-stage booster, which will aim for a recovery landing downrange on a droneship stationed in the Atlantic off the coast of the Bahamas.

TBD, As early as March 3: NASA Artemis II mission to send four crew on 10-day orbital mission to the moon from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-B. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said March 3 is a possibility, but the next official launch window would give options on March 6 at 8:29 p.m. with additional windows on March 7, 8, 9 and 11. After that, opportunities fall to April 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 and then a new set of opportunities that begin April 30 (PDF of launch times). Read more.

TBD: United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on the Amazon Leo – Vulcan Leo 1 mission to carry 44 operational Amazon Leo satellites, the first Vulcan mission to proliferate the constellation formerly known as Project Kuiper. The Vulcan booster and Centaur second stage are at CCSFS awaiting stacking for launch as of Dec. 1, 2025. The launch will use six boosters, the most powerful configuration for Vulcan.

TBD : SpaceX Falcon 9 on Intuitive Machines IM-3 mission with Nova-C lander for NASA’s CLPS task order. Also called PRISM to carry four NASA payloads to the Reiner Gamma region of the Moon, as well as a rover, a data relay satellite, and secondary payloads to be determined. Scientific objectives include gaining an understanding of the Reiner Gamma swirl mini-magnetosphere region and its magnetic and plasma properties.

TBD, Late February: Blue Origin New Glenn on the NG-3 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36 with payload of AST SpaceMobile’s next-generation Block 2 BlueBird satellite headed to to low-Earth orbit.

April 3: NG-24 resupply mission on SpaceX Falcon 9, a cargo mission from Northrop Grumman using its Cygnus spacecraft.

TBD : Blue Origin New Glenn carrying Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1), a single-launch, lunar cargo lander that remains on the surface. Will fly one scientific instrument awarded under NASA’s CLPS initiative.

TBD, no earlier than April 2026: Boeing Starliner-1 on ULA Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Space Launch Complex 41. NASA updated Boeing contract announcing this mission will be uncrewed. This Starliner previously flew on Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 mission. Read more.

TBD: Spring 2026: Blue Origin New Glenn mission on payload Blue Ring’s first mission with initial injection into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), with additional services performed in Geostationary Orbit (GEO). Scout Space to integrate one of its flagship next-generation space domain awareness (SDA) Owl sensors onboard the first mission of Blue Ring,

TBD: Early 2026: SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lander and Elytra Dark orbiting transfer vehicle on Blue Ghost Mission 2 to land on the far side of the moon and take advantage of the radio-quiet environment to deploy an array of antennas, comprising a low-frequency (0.1 to 50 MHz) radio telescope. The telescope will be used to observe the radio sky at frequencies below 50 MHz and will measure the low-frequency foreground of the universe. It will also help evaluate the far side of the moon as a radio-quiet environment, test the hypothesis of the late heavy bombardment of the moon, and test the hypothesis that a major rearrangement of planet distances and the beginning of life on Earth occurred at about the same time. The mission consists of the Blue Ghost lunar lander, the Elytra Dark orbital vehicle, and the Lunar Surface Electromagnetic Explorer Night system (LuSEE Night). Elytra Dark will serve as a transfer vehicle to bring the Blue ghost lander to the moon. Blue Ghost will land on the lunar far side carrying LuSee Night, which will deploy directly from the spacecraft.

TBD, No earlier than May 2026: SpaceX Falcon 9 with Vast Haven-1 uncrewed space station.

TBD, No earlier than June 2026: SpaceX Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon spacecraft with commercial customers for Vast.

TBD, no earlier than July 2026: SpaceX Falcon Heavy flying Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. No longer taking the canceled VIPER rover mission. The Griffin lander will demonstrate its ability to land with no official NASA payload, but will touch down on Mons Mouton near the western rim of Nobile crater close to the lunar south pole. As of October 2026, the payloads are Astrolab’s FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform) rover, Astrobotic’s own CubeRover, and several additional payloads to the moon.

TBD, no earlier than late 2026: United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on the first Sierra Space Dream Chaser flight to the International Space Station. Mission slipped into 2025 because ULA needed more Vulcan rocket hardware beyond Cert-2 and the two USSF missions that took priority over the Dream Chaser flight. Still on NASA’s manifest for 2025 as of June, but not mentioned on ISS manifest before the end of the year. Read more.

TBD, no earlier than late 2026: United Launch Alliance Atlas V on the Starliner-2 mission, which could be the first operational, crewed mission for Boeing’s Starliner under the Commercial Crew Program. Mission is contingent on successful certification of Starliner after completing Starliner-1.

UPCOMING: TBD IN 2027 and Beyond

TBD, before end of 2028: NASA Artemis III mission to send four crew on lunar landing mission to the moon from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-B. Read more.

TBD, 2027: SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying the Draper Lunar Lander headed for the moon’s Schrödinger basin on the lunar far side. It will carry three NASA-sponsored science payloads to make geophysical measurements as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Draper Laboratories provides the launch and lander and is partnering with ispace with its APEX 1.0 lander which also will deploy relay satellites into orbit in order to allow communication with Earth from the far side of the moon. Schrodinger basin, a large impact crater near the moon’s south pole, shows evidence of geologically recent volcanic activity. The science payload to be landed there includes seismometers, a drill to allow emplacement of heat flow and electrical conductivity probes, and instruments to study the magnetic field and surface weathering.

TBD, No earlier than 2027: Intuitive Machines on IM-4 mission with Nova-C lander under NASA CLPS initiative with a lander headed to the south pole region of the moon, currently planned for the Mons Mouton region. It will carry a suite of six science payloads, with a total mass of 79 kg, to the surface. These include the Compact Infrared Imaging System, which is an imaging radiometer to make mineralogical and thermophysical measurements on the lunar surface; the Surface and Exosphere Alterations by Landers (SEAL) instrument designed to study the chemical response of the lunar regolith to the lander, as well as to characterize the lunar exosphere at the surface; the Fluxgate Magnetometer (MAG) to characterize the magnetic field of the Moon at low altitudes and on the surface; and a laser retroreflector. It will also carry the Lunar Explorer Instrument for space biology Applications (LEIA) science suite, which will study the biological response of yeast to the lunar environment and measure the radiation levels at the lunar surface. In addition, there is a European Space Agency payload, the Package for Resource Observation and in-situ Prospecting for Exploration, commercial exploration and Transportation (PROSPECT), designed to assess the potential use of resources for human exploration.

TBD: Firefly Aerospace with Blue Ghost lander under NASA CLPS initiative. Will feature an orbital transfer vehicle and rover headed to the Gruithuisen Domes on the moon. The objective is to study the composition and origin of the domes and surroundings. It will have a Sample Acquisition, Morphology Filtering & Probing of Lunar Regolith (SAMPLR) robotic arm. The mission will carry a suite of instruments, the Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer (Lunar-VISE). Lunar-VISE includes three instruments on the rover, the Visible Near-InfraRed (VNIR) Imaging Camera, the Compact InfraRed Imaging System, and the Gamma Ray and Neutron Spectrometer. It also has two cameras on the lander, the Context Camera and the Descent Camera. It will also carry the Heimdall imaging suite, a Radio-wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron Sheath (ROLSES) radio telescope, the Photovoltaic Investigation on the Lunar Surface (PILS), and the Neutron Measurements at the Lunar Surface (NMLS).

LAUNCHED IN 2026

Jan. 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-88 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:48 a.m. This was the first flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

Jan. 9 (Delayed from Jan. 8): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-96 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:41 p.m. This was the 29th flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

Jan. 12: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-97 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:08 p.m. This was the 25th flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

Jan. 14: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-98 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:08 p.m. 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. This set a record turnaround for SLC-40 coming 45 hours after a Jan. 12 launch, besting previous record by more than five hours that was set Dec. 9-11, 2025. Read more.

Jan. 18: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-100 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:41 p.m. This was the 24th flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic.

Jan. 27 (Delayed from Jan. 26): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the NSSL GPS III mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:53 p.m. Mission was moved from United Launch Alliance to speed up launch (ULA gets a future launch in exchange). Payload is Space Vehicle SV09. Read more.

Jan. 30: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-101 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:22 a.m. This was the fifth flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on a droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic.

Feb. 12, (Delayed from 2024): United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on USSF-87, the rocket’s second planned Department of Defense mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 4:22 a.m. One of four boosters suffered what looked like a burn through of one of its nozzles about 30 seconds into launch, similar to what a Vulcan launch suffered in 2024 on its second ever flight. ULA said it was able to get its payloads on the proper trajectory, though. They include the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) spacecraft. It’s one of two NSSF Phase 2 contracts awarded to ULA in 2021 originally targeting a launch by the fourth quarter of FY23 with the other launch, USSF-112 originally targeting a launch by the third quarter of FY23. Combined, the two mission task orders had an original contract value of $225 million. Read more.

Feb. 13: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:15 a.m. This was the second crewed launch from SLC-40 after 2024’s Crew-9 debut. All four of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon launches in 2025 were from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A. Crew are NASA astronauts, commander Jessica Meir and pilot Jack Hathaway, mission specialist and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot and mission specialist and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, The Crew Dragon Freedom made its 5th flight. Crew-12 will join Expedition 74 crew members currently aboard the space station. The first-stage booster made its second flight with a return landing for the first time at SpaceX’s new pad at SLC-40 called Landing Zone 40 (LZ-40). The mission is targeting an eight-month stay with an October return. Read more.

Feb. 16: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-103 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:59 a.m. This was the 10th flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic.

LAUNCHED IN 2025

Jan. 3: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Thuraya-4 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:27 p.m. The first-stage booster made its 20th flight and made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

Jan. 6: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-71 mission with 24 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 3:43 p.m. The first-stage booster made its 17th flight, having previously launched the Crew-5 human spaceflight and 15 other missions. It made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Jan. 8: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-11 mission from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 10:27 a.m. The first-stage booster made its third flight with a landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

Jan. 10: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-12 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:11 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for a record 25th time with landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

Jan. 13: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-4 mission with 21 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:47 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 15th time with landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

Jan. 15: SpaceX Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 1:11 a.m. with both the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost moon lander on Blue Ghost Mission 1, the third of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) missions, and the Japanese company ispace’s Hakuto-R Mission-2 lunar lander. Blue Ghost is designed to deliver 10 NASA payloads. Blue Ghost is slated to arrive to the moon 45 days after launch for a 14-day mission on the moon. The ispace lander named Resilience won’t arrive for 4 1/2 months after launch. On board is a micro rover built by ispace called Tenacious as well as several commercial payloads. Read more.

Jan. 16 (Delayed from Jan. 10, 12, 13): First launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on the NG-1 Blue Ring Pathfinder mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 36 at 2:03 a.m. This would be the first of two certification flights for NSSL missions required by the Space Force. Payload will be Blue Origin Blue Ring pathfinder. Originally targeted to be 2nd launch of new rocket. New Glenn’s first launch was planned to be NASA’s Mars-bound ESCAPADE twin satellite mission, but that has been delayed to potentially spring 2025 or later. New debut launch then targeted November, but FAA only gave launch license on Dec. 27, same day as the rocket’s first test hot fire on the pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 36. Jan. 10 and 12 launch windows were waved off because of high seas for booster recovery, and then Jan. 13 attempt scrubbed “to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue” with no new launch date announced. Read more.

Jan. 21: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 13-1 mission with 21 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 12:24 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 8th time landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

Jan. 27: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-7 mission with 21 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:05 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 20th time with a landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

Jan. 29: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the SpainSat NG 1 mission from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 8:34 p.m. The first-stage booster made a successful 21st liftoff, but was expended to get the satellite to a geosynchronous transfer orbit. Read more.

Feb. 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-3 mission with 21 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:15 a.m. This was the 21st launch for the first-stage booster, which made a landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. Read more.

Feb. 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Maxar Digital Globe 3 mission from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A with a pair of satellites headed to min-inclination orbit at 6:13 p.m. This was the fourth launch of the first-stage booster that made a recovery landing on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1. It was the first LZ-1 landing of the year after 12 in 2024 and 6 in 2023. Read more.

Feb. 8: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-9 mission carrying 21 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:18 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 17th time and made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

Feb. 11: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-18 mission with 21 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:53 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 18th time and made a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

Feb. 15: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-8 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 targeting at 1:14 a.m, This was a record 26th launch for the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

Feb. 18: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-12 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:21 p.m. The was the 16th launch of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in Exuma Sound off the coast of the Bahamas. SpaceX has warned that residents in the Bahamas may hear one or more sonic booms during the first-stage landing. Read more.

Feb. 21: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-14 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:19 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 21st time and made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

Feb. 26: Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:16 p.m. Flying is the company’s second Nova-C lander named Athena featuring NASA’s PRIME-1 drill, to land a drill and mass spectrometer near the south pole of the moon in order to demonstrate the feasibility of in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) and measure the volatile content of subsurface samples. Also flying is the Lunar Trailblazer, a mission selected under NASA’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program, a small satellite designed to provide an understanding of the form, abundance, and distribution of water on the moon, as well as the lunar water cycle. A secondary payload is the AstroForge Odin spacecraft headed for a a near-Earth asteroid named 2022 OB5. The first-stage booster made its ninth flight landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, marking its 100th booster catch. Read more.

Feb. 26: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-13 mission with 21 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:34 p.m. The first-stage booster flew its debut launch and made a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

March 2: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-20 mission with 21 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:24 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the fifth time landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. A fire after landing, though, caused the booster to tumble and be destroyed.

March 12: SpaceX Falcon on the Starlink 12-21 mission with 21 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 targeting 10:35 p.m. The first-stage booster made its 22nd flight with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

March 14 (delayed from March 12): SpaceX Crew-10 mission on SpaceX Falcon 9 in the Crew Dragon Endurance at 7:03 p.m. from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A. Delayed from a planned February launch because of more time needed for a new Crew Dragon from SpaceX, but then the decision to switch to Endurance moved up the mission by about two weeks. The Crew-10 and a planned summer launch of Crew-11 were awarded in lieu of the now-delayed Boeing Starliner-1 mission after issues with 2024’s Boeing Crew Flight Test mission. Booster flew for the second time with landing at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1. Scrubbed March 12 attempt. Read more.

March 15: SpaceX Falcon on the Starlink 12-16 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:35 a.m. The launch came just two days, eight hours, 59 minutes since the previous launch at SLC-40, setting a turnaround record. The first-stage booster flew for the 18th time landing on the Just Read the Instructions droneship.

March 18: SpaceX Falcon on the Starlink 12-25 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 3:57 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 19th time and made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

March 24: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the classified NROL-69 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:48 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the second time with recovery landing at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1. This was the 25th launch of the year. Read more.

March 31 (delayed from March 30) SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-80 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 3:52 p.m. The first-stage booster made its 17th flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

March 31: SpaceX Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon on the Fram2 private human spaceflight mission from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A in the Crew Dragon Resilience at 9:46 p.m. It marks the first time humans have flown on a polar orbital mission. Named Fram2 in deference to the ship “Fram” built in Norway that helped explorers get to the Arctic and Antarctica. The crew includes Chinese-born Chun Wang of Malta, an entrepreneur who made a fortune in cryptocurrency and an avid adventurer. Along for the ride will be fellow adventurers Eric Philips of Australia, Jannicke Mikkelsen of Norway and Rabea Rogge of Germany. Mikkelsen will take the role of mission commander and Philips the role of pilot. The first-stage booster made its sixth flight with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. Resilience is on its fourth trip to space and will land off the coast of California. Read more.

April 5: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-72 mission with 28 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:07 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 19th time landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.

April 12 (Delayed from April 11): SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 12-17 mission with 21 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A during at 8:54 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 10th time. It previously flew crewed missions Crew-8, Polaris Dawn and IM-2. It made a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

April 14: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-73 mission carrying 27 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12 a.m. This marked the fleet-leading 27th launch of the first-stage booster that made a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. This was the 30th launch of the year.

April 21: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the CRS-32 resupply mission to the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 4:15 a.m. The first-stage booster made its third flight with a recovery landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1. This was the fifth flight on the Dragon spacecraft. It will dock with the ISS after a 28-hour flight targeting 8:20 a.m. Tuesday. Read more.

April 21: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Bandwagon-3 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:48 p.m. On board this mission were ADD’s 425Sat-3, Tomorrow Companies Inc.’s Tomorrow-S7, and Atmos Space Cargo’s PHOENIX re-entry capsule. This was the third flight for the first-stage booster and it made a recovery landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 2. Read more.

April 24: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-74 mission with 28 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:52 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for its 23rd time landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

April 25: The Army and Navy performed a test launch of the hypersonic missile defense system Dark Eagle from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 46. Read more.

April 27: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-23 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:09 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 20th time making a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.

April 28 (Delayed from April 9, 14): United Launch Alliance Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 on the Kuiper 1 at 7:01 p.m. on the inaugural launch of Amazon’s Project Kuiper with 27 satellites for the constellation headed for low-Earth orbit. ULA has only 14 more Atlas V rockets including seven more set aside for Amazon. This was ULA’s first launch of the year and the Space Coast’s 35th overall. Read more.

April 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-10 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39-A at 10:34 p.m. The first-stage booster made its first flight with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic.

May 1: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-75 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:51 p.m. The first-stage booster made its 18th flight with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic.

May 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-84 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39-A 4:55 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 20th flight making a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

May 6: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-93 mission with 28 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during four-hour launch window from 8:22 p.m. to 12:22 a.m. May 7, and backup later on May 7 from 7:56-11:56 p.m. This is the seventh flight for the first-stage booster that will attempt a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

May 10: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-91 mission with 28 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:28 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 11th time landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. This was the 40th launch of the year.

May 13 (Delayed from May 11): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-83 mission with 28 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39-A at 1:09 a.m. Scrubbed May 11 because of high winds. This was the record-leading 28th launch of the first-stage booster, which flew the Crew-3 and Crew-4 missions among 27 previous. It made a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. This also marked the 100th Falcon 9 launch from 39-A.

May 14: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-67 mission with 28 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:38 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the fourth time landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

May 20: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-15 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 At 11:19 p.m. This was the debut flight of the first-stage booster that made a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.

May 24: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-22 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:19 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 24th time landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

May 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-32 mission with 27 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 9:30 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 19th flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic. This was the 45th launch of the year. Read more.

May 30: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the GPS III-7 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:37 p.m. This is one of the missions originally awarded to United Launch Alliance under the NSSL Phase 2 contracts, but shifted to SpaceX after delays in ULA’s Vulcan certification. The first-stage booster flew for the fourth time and made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

June 3: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 12-19 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:43 a.m. The first-stage booster flew its 21st time with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic.

June 7: SpaceX Falcon 9 on SiriusXM-10 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:54 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the eighth time landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

June 10: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 12-24 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:05 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 12th time with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

June 13: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-26 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:29 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 21st launch with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. This was the 50th orbital launch of the year from the Space Coast. Read more.

June 18: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-18 mission with 28 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:55 a.m. The mission included the 9,000th Starlink flown since the first operational mission in 2019. The first-stage booster flew for the fifth time landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.

June 23 (Delayed from June 16): United Launch Alliance Atlas V on the Kuiper 2 mission with 27 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41. at 6:54 a.m. Launch was ULA’s 2nd of the year following the April 28 launch of Kuiper 1 to put 27 satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper into space, the first of dozens of launches lined up to help build out a constellation of more than 3,200 satellites by 2028 and compete with SpaceX’s Starlink service. Read more.

June 23: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-23 mission with 27 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 targeting the opening of window from 1:58 a.m. The first-stage flew for the 25th time with a landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

June 25 (delayed from June 10, 11): SpaceX Falcon 9 with unnamed Crew Dragon on Axiom Space Ax-4 mission to the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 2:31 a.m. The crew assigned to Ax-4 includes Commander Peggy Whitson, Mission Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Mission Specialist Sławosz Uznański of ESA/Poland, and Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu of Hungary. This would be Whitson’s second trip on an Axiom mission to the ISS, and part of NASA’s requirement that former NASA astronaut command commercial mission visits to the ISS. The commercial flight brings four crew for a short stay on the ISS. This mission is targeting a 14-day stay, and will fly up the fifth SpaceX Crew Dragon, which was named Grace once on orbit. This was the second flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing back at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1. Read more.

June 25: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-16 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 3:54 p.m. carrying 27 more Starlink satellites to orbit. The first-stage booster flew for the 20th time landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. This was the 55th launch of the year.

June 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-34 mission with 27 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:26 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the fifth time and made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortffall of Gravitas. The launch set a pad turnaround record for SpaceX, coming two days, eight hours, 31 minutes after the Starlink 10-16 launch on June 25.

July 1: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the MTGS1 mission with the second of EUMETSAT’s third generation of weather satellites from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 5:04 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for its ninth flight with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. MTG-S1 will sample the atmosphere at hyperspectral resolution. Its core instrument, the Infrared Sounder, collects temperature profiles and humidity profiles. The satellite also hosts the European Union’s Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, which aims to monitor key air quality trace gases and aerosols over Europe in support of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) at high spatial resolution and with a fast revisit time. The mission is part of the European Earth Observation Program “Copernicus” which is run by the European Union together with the European Space Agency (ESA) in cooperation with the European Environment Agency (EEA). Read more.

July 2: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-25 mission with 27 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:28 a.m. This marked the 500th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket and the fleet-leading 29th launch of the first-stage booster that landed on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

July 8: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-28 mission with 28 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:21 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 22nd time making a landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

July 13: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Commercial GTO 1 mission with an Israeli communications satellite called Dror 1 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:04 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 13th time and made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. It marked the 500th successful Falcon 9 launch, with only two failures from 502 missions flown since 2010. Those were in 2015 and 2024. This was the 60th launch on the Space Coast in 2025. Read more.

July 16: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the KF-01 mission to bring up 24 more satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during at 2:30 a.m. This was the third launch of operational satellites for Amazon’s broadband internet constellation, which is seeking to become a competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink service. The previous two launches were on ULA Atlas V rockets with 27 satellites each. This was the first launch of the booster for this mission, which made a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

July 22 (Delayed from July 21): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the mPOWER-D mission with two more communication satellites for Luxembourg-based SES from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:12 p.m. The July 21 attempt aborted with just under 15 seconds on the clock ahead of a 5:27 p.m. liftoff attempt. These are the ninth and 10th O3b mPOWER satellites built by Boeing Space for the company. The are headed to medium-Earth orbit at about 5,000 miles altitude. This was the sixth flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

July 26: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-26 mission with 28 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:01 a.m. This was the 22nd flight of the first-stage booster, which made recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic.

July 30: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-29 mission with 27 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:37 p.m. This was the 26th flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic.

Aug. 1 (Delayed from July 31): SpaceX Crew-11 mission on SpaceX Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 11:43 a.m. Crew is NASA astronauts Commander Zena Cardman and Pilot Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Mission Specialist Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Oleg Platonov. This is the first spaceflight for Cardman and Platonov, the fourth trip for Fincke, and the second for Yui, to the orbiting laboratory. The first-stage booster made its third flight having previously flown on a Starlink mission and the Ax-4 mission It made SpaceX’s final landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1 (although SpaceX may still use LZ-2 before new landing sites are created at its SLC-40 and LC-39A sites). This is a record sixth flight for Crew Dragon Endeavour, which made SpaceX’s debut human spaceflight in May 2020 on the Demo-2 mission. This was the 65th launch of 2025. Read more.

Aug. 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 10-30 mission with 28 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during launch window at 3:57 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 21st flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. It was the 450th reuse of a first-stage booster.

Aug. 11 (Delayed from Aug. 7, 8, 9, 10): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the KF-02 mission to send up next batch of Amazon Project Kuiper satellites, the second of three contracted missions for SpaceX with its Starlink competitor, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:35 a.m. This was the first flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. Scrubbed initially for rocket checkouts. Aug. 9 attempt scrubbed because of weather at the launch site. Aug. 10 attempt scrubbed for weather at booster recovery site. This was the 50th CCSFS orbital launch of the year. Read more.

Aug. 14: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 10-20 mission with 28 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:29 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 10th flight and made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.

Aug. 12 (Delayed from 2024): United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on USSF-106, the rocket’s first Department of Defense mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 8:56 p.m. Payload is two satellites, including the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 headed to geostationary orbit. Built by L3Harris, it’s funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory and potential replacement technology for GPS. USSF-106 is the 2nd of two NSSF Phase 2 contracts awarded to ULA in 2020 originally targeting a launch by the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022 (FY22). The first, USSF-51, launched in summer 2024, originally slated to be on Vulcan, but moved to Atlas V, and originally to have been launched by the second quarter of FY22. Combined, the two mission task orders had an original contract value of $337 million. Read more.

Aug. 21: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the USSF-36 mission with the Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehcile (OTV-8) spacecraft on its eighth mission to space from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 11:50 p.m. The X-37B program, which first launched in April 2010, has accrued 4,208 days in operation. The first-stage booster flew for the sixth time and made a recovery landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 2. This was the 70th launch of the year. Read more.

Aug. 24: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the CRS-33 resupply mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:45 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for its seventh time with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. This is the third flight of the cargo Dragon that will be outfitted with reboost capacity for the International Space Station for the first time. Read more.

Aug. 27: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-56 mission with 28 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during launch window at 7:10 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 2nd flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.

Aug. 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 10-11 mission with 28 satellites from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 1:12 a.m. The first-stage booster made its fleet-leading 30th flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

Aug. 31: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-14 mission with 28 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:49 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 23rd flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. It was SpaceX’s 70th launch of the year from the Space Coast. Read more.

Sept. 3: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 10-22 mission with 28 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:56 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 14th flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.This was the 75th launch of the year

Sept. 5: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 10-57 mission with 28 satellites from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 8:32 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 27th flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. It marked the 500th recovery of a Falcon booster. .

Sept. 11 (Delayed from Sept. 8, 9, 10): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Nusantara Lima mission headed to geosynchronous transfer orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:56 p.m. The first-stage booster made its 23rd flight with a planned recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

Sept. 14: Northrop Grumman Cygnus on NG-23 resupply mission to the ISS on SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:11 p.m. This was the fourth flight of the first-stage booster, making a recovery landing at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 2. Read more.

Sept. 18: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-61 mission carrying 28 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:30 a.m. The first-stage booster made its seventh flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic. This was the 75th launch from SpaceX on the Space Coast for the year and 60th from CCSFS from all providers.

Sept. 21: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-27 mission carrying 28 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:53 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 11th flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. This was the 80th launch of the year on the Space Coast and 20th of the year from KSC. Read more.

Sept. 24: SpaceX Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 7:30 a.m. with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) Observatory and two NASA observatories: the IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) and Carruthers Geocorona Observatory spacecraft. The first-stage booster made its second flight to space with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

Sept. 25: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-15 mission carrying 28 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:39 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 22nd flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

Sept. 25: United Launch Alliance Atlas V on the Kuiper 3 mission with 27 more satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 8:09 a.m. Read more.

Oct. 7: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-59 mission carrying 28 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:46 a.m. The first-stage booster made its eighth flight and recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

Oct. 13 (Delayed from Oct. 9): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the KF-3 mission to launch 24 more satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper constellation lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:58 p.m. This was the third of three contracted Project Kuiper flights Amazon has with SpaceX, and sixth overall flight to put operational satellites into orbit. The other three have been from ULA Atlas V launches this year. This batch would bring Amazon’s satellite total to 153 of the planned 3,236 total needed to be in orbit by July 2029 (Half of which are supposed to be in orbit by July 2026). The first-stage booster flew for second time with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. This was the 85th launch from the Space Coast in 2025. Read more.

Oct. 16: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-52 mission carrying 28 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:27 a.m. The first-stage booster made its third flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic. It marked the 500th successful landing of a Falcon 9 booster. This marked a record turnaround at SLC-40 coming two days, seven hours, 29 minutes since a launch on Oct. 13. Read more.

Oct. 19: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-17 mission carrying 28 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 targeting at 1:39 p.m. The first-stage booster made its fleet-leading 31st flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

Oct. 23: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the SpainSat NG II Mission flying a communications satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:30 p.m. This was the 22nd flight for the first-stage booster, but had no recovery because of extra power needed to get the payload to its destination. Read more.

Oct. 26: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-21 mission carrying 29 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 24th flight with recovery landing downrange on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

Oct. 29: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-37 mission carrying 29 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:36 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 15th time with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic. This was the 90th Space Coast launch of the year, with all but five coming from SpaceX. Read more.

Nov. 2: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Bandwagon-4 mission at 1:09 a.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. Carrying 18 payloads for KOREA ADD, Exolaunch, Fergani, Tomorrow Companies Inc., Starcloud, and Vast. This was the third flight for the first stage booster with a land recovery at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 2. Read more.

Nov. 5: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-81 mission carrying 29 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:30 p.m. This was the fifth flight of the first stage booster that made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

Nov. 9 (Delayed from Nov. 8): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-51 mission carrying 29 satellites from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 3:10 a.m. This was the 28th flight of the first stage booster with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. The Saturday launch attempt scrubbed under a minute before liftoff because of bad weather in the booster recovery area. This was the 93rd launch of the year, tying the record on the Space Coast. It’s also the 21st launch from KSC. Read more.

Nov. 10: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-87 mission carrying 29 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:21 p.m. This was the third flight of the first stage booster that made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic. This marked a record 94th orbital launch for 2025. Read more.

Nov. 13: (Delayed from Oct. 13, 2024, Nov. 9, 12 2025): Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket of the twin spacecraft for ESCAPADE, which stands for Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, for NASA and the University of California Berkeley’s Space Science Laboratory. Launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36 at 3:55 p.m. The first-stage booster named “Never Tell Me The Odds” made a successful landing downrange in the Atlantic on recovery vessel Jacklyn. Read more.

Nov. 13: (delayed from Nov. 5,6): ULA Atlas V on the ViaSat-3 F2 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 10:04 p.m. After this launch, all remaining Atlas V rockets are set aside for Amazon’s Project Kuiper (5) or Boeing’s Starliner (6). Read more.

Nov. 14: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-89 mission carrying 29 satellites from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A. at 10:08 p.m. This was the eighth flight of the first stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

Nov. 15: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-85 mission carrying 29 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:44 a.m. This was the third flight of the first stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

Nov. 18: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-94 mission carrying 28 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:12 p.m. This was the 12th flight of the first stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. This was the 99th orbital launch from the Space Coast in 2025.

Nov. 20: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-78 mission carrying 29 satellites from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 10:38 p.m. This was the 23rd flight of the first stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic. This was the 100th orbital launch from the Space Coast in 2025. Read more.

Nov. 22: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-79 mission carrying 29 satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:53 a.m. This was the ninth flight of the first stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. This was the 150th Falcon 9 launch for SpaceX including California missions in 2025.

Dec. 1: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-86 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 2:44 a.m. This was the fourth launch of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic.

Dec. 2: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-95 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:18 p.m. This was the 25th flight for the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

Dec. 8: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-92 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 5:26 p.m. This was the fleet-leading 32nd flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic. This batch of Starlinks included the 3000th launched in 2025. Read more.

Dec. 9: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the NROL-77 mission with a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:16 p.m. This was the fourth launch of the first-stage booster, with a recovery at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 2, the final planned use of the landing site before SpaceX’s lease at LZ-2 ends on Dec. 31. SpaceX had warned ahead of launch that parts of Central Florida could experience one or more sonic booms. This was the 3rd national security launch for SpaceX in 2025. The mission patch is a flying squirrel, “a symbol of hard work and endurance — always active gathering foundational knowledge from the space domain for the nation and its allies.” NROL-77 was awarded to SpaceX during the NSSL Phase 2 contract task orders in fiscal 2024, the final year of task orders from the Phase 2’s 2000-2024 order years. Read more.

Dec. 11: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-90 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:01 p.m. This was the 16th flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. This sets a turnaround record between launches for SLC-40, coming 2 days, 2 hours, 44 min since the Dec. 9 NROL-77 mission. Read more.

Dec. 15: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-82 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:25 a.m. This was the ninth flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. This was SpaceX’s 100th launch on the Space Coast in 2025. Read more.

Dec. 16 (Delayed from Dec. 15): United Launch Alliance Atlas V on the Amazon Leo 4 mission (formerly Project Kuiper) at 3:28 a.m. The Atlas V was in a 551 configuration launching 27 satellites in Amazon’s seventh overall operational launch (and fourth with ULA). This would increase the constellation to 180 of the planned 3,236 total needed to be in orbit by July 2029. This was ULA’s 6th launch of the year, fifth Atlas V (the other was a Vulcan) and fourth for Amazon. Read more.

Dec. 17, (Delayed from Dec. 15): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-99 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 8:42 a.m. This was the 6th flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

LAUNCHED IN 2024

Jan. 3: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Ovzon 3 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:04 p.m. This was the first launch of 2024. The 3,968-pound Ovzon 3 satellite is the first privately funded and developed Swedish geostationary satellite ever to be launched, headed for a geostationary transfer orbit where it will then propel itself to its geostationary orbit over 3-4 months at 59.7 degrees east at 22,236 miles altitude. The first-stage booster flew for the 10th time with a recovery landing at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1. Read more.

Jan. 7: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-35 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:35 p.m. The first-stage booster made its 16th flight having previously flown on two crewed and two cargo missions to the International Space Station among others. It managed its recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

Jan. 8 (Delayed from May 4, Dec. 24-26): First-ever launch of United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on Certification-1 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 2:18 a.m. Primary payload was commercial company Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander headed to the moon. Also flying will be another human remains payload for Celestis Inc., this time brining the ashes of more than 200 people to space including “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and actor James Doohan who played “Scotty” on the TV series. Read more.

Jan. 14 (Delayed from Jan. 13): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-37 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with 23 Starlink satellites at 8:52 p.m. The first-stage booster flew its 12th mission and with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. This was the fourth launch from the Space Coast in 2024. Read more.

Jan. 18 (Delayed from Jan. 17): SpaceX Falcon 9 with a Crew Dragon Freedom for Axiom Space’s Axiom-3 mission launched at 4:49 p.m. from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A. The crew includes one astronaut each from Italy, Turkey and Sweden while the mission is led by Axiom’s chief astronaut Michael López-Alegría who is making his sixth trip to space. The customers are Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei, who will act as pilot. In the two mission specialist roles are Alper Gezeravcı of Turkey and ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden. All three have served in their respective nations’ air forces. The commercial flight brings four crew for a short stay on the ISS. This mission is targeting a 14-day stay with docking planned for Saturday at 5:15 a.m. The first-stage booster made a landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1. Read more.

Jan. 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-38 mission with 23 Starlink satellites at 8:10 p.m. liftoff on a southerly trajectory from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39-A. The first-stage booster made its 18th flight, with past missions including the crewed flights of Inspiration4 and Ax-1, and had a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

Jan. 30: SpaceX Falcon 9 with Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft on the NG-20 mission to resupply the International Space Station at12:07 p.m.. This was the first ISS launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40, which SpaceX has been redeveloping to support future crewed missions in addition to KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A. This was the first of at least three SpaceX flights of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft as part of a deal after its 10-year run of launches atop Antares rockets ended with the Aug. 1 launch from Wallops Island, Virginia because of issues with Russian- and Ukrainian-made rocket engines and first stage parts that are being redeveloped with Firefly Aerospace for a future Antares rocket not expected until at least 2025. Following launch, the space station’s Canadarm2 will grapple Cygnus no earlier than Thursday, Feb. 1, and the spacecraft will attach to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port for cargo unloading by the Expedition 70 crew. The first-stage booster made its 10th flight and returned for a touchdown at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1. Read more.

Feb. 8 (Delayed from Feb. 6, 7): NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol Cloud Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:33 a.m. PACE will advance the assessment of ocean health by measuring the distribution of phytoplankton, tiny plants and algae that sustain the marine food web, as well as clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere. The first-stage booster flying for the fourth time made a recovery landing at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1. Read more.

Feb. 14: A SpaceX Falcon 9 on the USSF-124 mission launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:30 p.m. Payloads included two satellites for the Missile Defense Agency to track hypersonic missiles and four more satellites for the Tranche 0 constellation for the Space Development Agency. The first-stage booster flew for the seventh time with a recovery landing at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 2. Read more.

Feb. 15 (Delayed from Nov. 14, Jan. 12, Feb. 14): SpaceX Falcon 9 for the Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission with the company’s Nova-C lunar lander Odysseus from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 1:05 a.m. This could end up being the first NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission to land on the moon after the failure of Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander. The IM-1 has a suite of six NASA payloads as part of a CLPS delivery and another six privately organized payloads. Landing would take place Feb. 22.Read more.

Feb. 20: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Merah Putih 2 mission, a communications satellite for Telkom Indonesia, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 at 3:11 p.m. into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. This was the 11th launch from the Space Coast in 2023 and 300th successful Falcon 9 launch since its debut in 2010, having only had one mid-launch failure in 2015. This was the 17th launch of the first stage booster, and it made a recovery landing downrange on the Just Read the Instructions droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Feb. 25 (delayed from Feb. 24): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-39 mission sending up 24 Starlink satellites launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:06 p.m. This was the 12th launch from the Space Coast in 2024. The first-stage booster for the mission flew for the 13th time and made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. Read more.

Feb. 29: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-40 mission with 23 Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:30 a.m. This was the 13th launch from the Space Coast in 2024. The first-stage booster for the mission flew for the 11h time and made recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions downrange in the Atlantic. Read more.

March 3 (delayed from Feb. 22, 28, March 1, 2): SpaceX Crew-8 on Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 10:53 p.m. Bad weather on the ascent corridor took the first three launch options on March 1 and 2 off the table. It’s the eighth SpaceX operational mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Its four crew members are NASA astronauts Commander Matthew Dominick, Pilot Michael Barratt, Mission Specialist Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Alexander Grebenkin. They flew up in the Crew Dragon Endeavour making its fifth trip to space. The first-stage booster made its first flight. The mission had originally been targeting Feb. 22, but that was the target day for the Intuitive Machines attempt to land on the moon, and NASA chose to move the launch to “deconflict” NASA support operations that day. Read more.

March 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-41 mission sending up 23 more Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:56 p.m. The first stage booster flew for the 13th time and made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

March 10: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-43 mission sent up 23 more Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:05 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 11th time with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions downrange in the Atlantic. This was the 16th launch from the Space Coast in 2024. Read more.

March 15 (Delayed from March 13, 14): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-44 mission sending up 23 more Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 8:21 p.m. after scrubbing launches on both Wednesday and Thursday with about 2 minutes on the countdown clock. The booster flew for a record-tying 19th time and made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

March 21: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the CRS-30 resupply mission with a Cargo Dragon to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:54 p.m. This was the first Dragon launch from SLC-40 since the addition of a crew access arm to support Dragon launches from more than one Space Coast pad and augment normal launches from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A. The first-stage booster made a recovery landing at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1. Read more.

March 23 (delayed from March 22): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-42 mission sending up 23 more Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 11:09 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for 19th time.

March 25: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-46 mission sending up 23 more Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:42 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the eighth time and landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship.

March 30: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Eutelsat-36X mission from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 5:52 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 12th time with a landing on the Just Read the Instructions droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. This was 20th SpaceX launch from the Space Coast in 2024 and 21st among all companies. Read more.

March 30: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-45 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:30 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 18th time with a landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

April 5: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-47 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:12 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 14th time landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. It was the 275th recovery of a Falcon 9 booster for SpaceX. Read more.

April 7: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the the Bandwagon-1 mission from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 7:16 p.m, The first-stage booster flew for the 14th time and made a recovery landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1. The 11 satellites on board are flying to a mid-inclination orbit. This is the first of a new type of rideshare program flying to that orbit that augments SpaceX’s Transporter program that flies to SSO. Read more.

April 9 (Delayed from March 28): United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy on the NROL-70 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37 at 12:53 p.m. This was the final Delta IV Heavy rocket launch ever, and last of any Delta rocket, which has been flying for more than 60 years. The Space Force has one more launch on a ULA Atlas V rocket before future missions transition to ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur. Read more.

April 10: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-48 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:40 a.m. The first-stage booster made its second flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.

April 12: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-49 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:40 p.m. The launch set a turnaround record for launches from SLC-40 at two days and 20 hours since the Aug. 10 launch. The previous record was Aug. 3-6, 2023 at three days, 21 hours, 41 minutes. The first-stage booster also flew for a record 20th time making a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

April 17: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-51 mission with 23 Starlink satellites launched from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 5:26 p.m. The first-stage booster made its 12th flight and landed downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

April 18: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-52 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:40 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the seventh time and made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

April 23 (Delayed from April 22): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-53 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:17 p.m. This was the 30th Space Coast launch of the year, with all but two coming from SpaceX. It also marked the 300th successful recovery of a first-stage booster among Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. Of note, the launch came 16 minutes ahead of a Rocket Lab launch from New Zealand. Read more.

April 27: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Galileo L12 mission carrying satellites for the European Commission from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 8:34 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for a record-tieng 20th time, but was expended getting the payload to medium-Earth orbit. Read more.

April 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-54 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:08 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 13th time with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. Read more.

May 2: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-55 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:37 p.m. This was the 19th flight of the first-stage booster, which launched both Crew 3 and Crew 4 human spaceflight missions. It’s recovery landing was on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic.

May 6: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-57 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 2:14 p.m. The first-stage booster for the flight made its 15th trip to space with a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic Ocean on SpaceX’s droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

May 8 (Delayed from May 7): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-56 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 2:42 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the third time having launched Crew-8 and a Starlink mission. It made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

May 12: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-58 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:53 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 15th time with a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

May 17: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-59 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral SLC-40 at 8:32 p.m. This marked the 21st flight for the first-stage booster, the most in the booster fleet, having previously flown on human spaceflight missions Inspiration4 and Axiom Space’s Ax-1 among others. It made another recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

May 22: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-62 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral SLC-40 at 10:35 p.m. This was the eighth flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

May 23: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-63 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 10:45 p.m. This was the 13th flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.

May 28 (Delayed from May 27): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-60 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral SLC-40 at 10:24 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 10th time and made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

May 31: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-64 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral SLC-40 at 10:37 p.m. The booster flew for the 14th time making a landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, a record turnaround for droneship recovery coming less than 84 hours since the previous recovery landing on May 28. Read more.

June 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink g8-5 mission carrying 20 Starlink satellites including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:16 p.m. This was the 20th flight of the first-stage booster that made a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

June 5 (Delayed from June 1, May 6, 17, 21, 25 2024; July 21, 2023; April 22, 2024): Boeing CST-100 Starliner atop United Launch Alliance Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 10:52 a.m. on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) carrying NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams on an eight-day mission to the International Space Station followed by a parachute-and-airbag-assisted ground landing in the desert of the southwestern United States. The May 6 attempt was scrubbed two hours before liftoff because of valve on ULA’s upper Centaur stage that teams continue to investigate. Teams deemed the valve needed to be replaced and the rocket needed to be rolled back from the pad to Boeing’s Vertical Integration Facility. A helium leak in the Starliner capsule further delayed it from a planned May 17 target to May 21 and then May 25. A June 1 attempt scrubbed with less than 4 minutes on the countdown clock. Read more.

June 7: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-1 mission carrying 22 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:56 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 16th time landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. It also marked the 300th landing of a Falcon 9 booster.

June 20 (Delayed from June 18, 19): SpaceX Falcon 9 on SES 24 mission flying the ASTRA 1P communication satellite for Luxembourg-based communications company SES for TV markets in Germany, Spain and France from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:35 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the ninth time making another recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions, the 250th time SpaceX had used a droneship for a successful recovery. Read more.

June 23 (Delayed from June 12,13,14): SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 10-2 mission with 22 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:15 p.m. An abort at T-0 on June 14 forced SpaceX to delay its launch nine days and change out the first-stage booster. The new booster made its 11h flight with a landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. Read more.

June 25: SpaceX Falcon Heavy on its 10th launch ever with payload of the GOES-U satellite for the NOAA from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 5:26 p.m. The two side boosters returned for a land landing at Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station while the center core stage fell into the ocean. Read more.

June 27: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 10-3 mission with Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:14 a.m. The booster for the flight made a record 22nd launch with a landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

July 3: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 8-9 mission carrying 20 Starlink satellites including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:55 a.m. This was the 16th flight of the first-stage booster, which was previously on the pad for the Starlink 10-3 mission, but was changed out after an issue when it hit T-0 during a launch attempt. It made a landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. Read more.

July 8: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Turksat 6A mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:30 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 15th time and made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

July 27: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-9 mission launching 23 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 1:45 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 17th flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic. The launch was the first since a California Starlink launch that ended up with a second-stage failure that grounded the Falcon 9. Read more.

July 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-4 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:09 a.m. This was the 14th flight of its first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. This marked the 300th successful reflight of a booster. Read more.

July 30: United Launch Alliance Atlas V on USSF-51 with classified payload from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 6:45 a.m. One of 16 remaining Atlas V rockets for ULA. Read more.

Aug. 2: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-6 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 1:01 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 12th time with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. It was SpaceX’s 50th launch from the Space Coast for the year. Read more.

Aug. 4 (Delayed from Aug. 3): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the NG-21 resupply mission taking up the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft with cargo to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:03 a.m, The first-stage booster flew for the 10th time and made a land recovery at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1. This was the 2nd time SpaceX has flown the Cygnus spacecraft. Weather led to a scrub of the Aug. 3 attempt, but SpaceX was able to launch despite Tropical Storm Debby churning off Florida’s southwest coast. Read more.

Aug. 10 (Delayed from Aug. 9): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-3 mission with 21 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:50 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 21st time, one of four boosters with more than 20 flights among the SpaceX fleet. It landed on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Was scrubbed from Friday because of bad weather in the launch recovery zone in the Atlantic. Read more.

Aug. 12 (Delayed from Aug. 10, 11): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-7 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 6:37 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 17th time landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

Aug. 15: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Maxar 2 mission flying two of Maxar Techologies’ WorldView Legion Earth-observation satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 lifting off at 9 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 16th time with a recovery at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1. This was the 199th Falcon 9 launch from SLC-40. Read more.

Aug. 20: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink g10-5 mission carrying 22 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit, launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:20 a.m. This was the first flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Aug. 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 8-6 mission carrying 21 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 targeting at 3:48 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for a record 23rd time, but did not make a successful landing. Its previous missions included the Inspiration4 and Axiom Space Ax-1 crewed launches. It tipped over during its recovery landing attempt downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. The FAA grounded Falcon 9 pending a SpaceX investigation. Read more.

Aug. 31: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 8-19 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with 21 Starlink satellites at 3:43 a.m. Its first-stage booster made its 18th flight and stuck the landing without issue on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Sept. 5 (Delayed from Sept. 4): SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 8-11 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:33 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 15th flight with a landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. A Sept. 4 launch attempt was scrubbed because of poor weather conditions downrange for the booster recovery. Read more.

Sept. 10: (Delayed from Aug. 28, Aug. 27, July 31, summer 2023): Polaris Dawn mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 topped with the Crew Dragon Resilience from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A at 5:23 a.m. The private orbital mission will bring billionaire Jared Isaacman to space for a second time after 2021′s Inspiration4 mission. It’s the first of up to three planned Polaris missions, and will feature a tethered spacewalk. Also flying are Scott Poteet, given the title of mission pilot, specialist Sarah Gillis, and specialist and medical officer Anna Menon. Both Gillis and Menon are SpaceX employees. Read more.

Sept. 12: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the BlueBird mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:52 a.m. on a mission to place five BlueBird satellites for Midland, Texas-based AST SpcaeMobile. The satellites are part of a space-based cellular broadband network in low-Earth orbit to be accessible by everyday smartphones for both commercial and government use across the U.S. and in select global markets. Beta test users will be for AT&T and Verizon. The first-stage booster flew for the 13th time making a return landing at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1. This was the 60th Space Coast launch of the year for SpaceX. Read more.

Sept. 17: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Galileo L-13 mission for the European Commission headed to medium-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:50 p.m. The payload’s MEO orbital needs required a previous mission to expend its booster back in April, but SpaceX has adjusted design to recover this mission’s booster making its 22nd flight with a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

Sept. 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Crew-9 mission flying aboard the Crew Dragon Freedom, flying for its fourth time, on the first human spaceflight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:17 p.m. Crew was only two to make room for Boeing Starliner CFT crew astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the return flight next February. Commander is NASA astronaut Nick Hague, the first active Space Force member to launch to space on his third launch, and Roscomos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov making his first flight. Original crew members, NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, who was originally slated to be commander but would have been making her first spaceflight, and Stephanie Wilson, a veteran of three space shuttle flights, were pulled from the mission. This is Hague’s third launch, although his first was an aborted Soyuz mission. This is Gorbunov’s first spaceflight. They mission is slated to return with four in February 2025. Of note, this will also be the first human spaceflight from SLC-40 as KSC’s pad will be in preparation for the Europa Clipper launch in October. The first-stage booster made a recovery landing on land at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1. Read more.

Oct. 4: United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on the Cert-2 mission at 7:25 a.m. Originally supposed to fly Sierra Space Dream Chaser test flight, but payload switched to an inert mass simulator because of potential Dream Chaser delays beyond October launch date. Launch was from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41. Read more.

Oct. 7: SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch the Hera mission for the European Space Agency (ESA) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:52 a.m. Hera will visit the asteroid Didymos and its moon Dimorphos as part of the NASA/ESA Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) collaboration. The initial mission of the collaboration, the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) will have visited the asteroids earlier and impacted Dimorphos with sufficient momentum to effect a measurable change in its orbit. The first-stage booster flew for a record-tying 23rd time, but it did not attempt a landing as it was expended to get Hera into an interplanetary transfer orbit. Read more.

Oct. 14 (Delayed from Oct. 10): SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 12:06 p.m. on the Europa Clipper mission to travel 1.8 billion miles to investigate Jupiter’s moon Europa to determine whether there are places below Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, that could support life. The mission’s detailed investigation of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet. NASA and SpaceX stood down from Oct. 10 opportunity to allow for Hurricane Milton to pass. The first-stage boosters made their 6th and final flights with no recovery. Read more.

Oct. 15: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 10-10 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:10 a.m. The booster flew for the 11th time and landed on A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

Oct. 18: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 8-19 mission with 20 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:31 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 17th time landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

Oct. 23 (Delayed from Oct. 22): SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-61 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:47 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 18th time landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. The mission marked the 72nd from all launch service providers on the Space Coast in 2024, tying the record set in 2023. Read more.

Oct. 26: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 10-8 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:47 p.m. The first-stage booster made its 19th launch with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. It was the record-setting 73rd launch from the Space Coast for the year. Read more.

Oct. 30: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 10-13 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:10 p.m. The first-stage booster for the mission made its 14th launch with a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic Ocean on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. This was a record 69th launch for SpaceX from the Space Coast for the year, although not a record for SLC-40, which had 55 launches in 2023, and only 51 so far in 2024. Read more.

Nov. 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the CRS-31 mission flying up a Cargo Dragon with supplies to the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 9:29 p.m. The first-stage booster made its fifth flight (Flew Crew-8, Polaris Dawn, 2 Starlink missions) and with a recovery landing on land back at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1. This is fifth flight of the Dragon spacecraft having flown CRS-21, CRS-23, CRS-25 and CRS-28. It has a 13-hour flight to the ISS with plans to dock Nov. 5 at 10:15 a.m. It’s carrying 6,000 pounds of food, supplies and equipment along with new experiments including the solar wind Coronal Diagnostic Experiment, Antarctic moss to observe cosmic radiation and microgravity on plants, a device to test cold welding of metals in microgravity, and an investigation that studies how space impacts different materials. Read more.

Nov. 7: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-77 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 3:17 p.m. The first-stage booster made its third flight with a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

Nov. 11: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Koreasat-6A mission from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 12:22 p.m. This was the 23rd mission for the first-stage booster, which made a record recovery return to nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1. It became the first SpaceX booster to successfully make 23 landings, although two previous boosters launched 23 times. One of those blew up on its landing attempt while another was purposefully expended to get its payload to a higher orbital insertion. Read more.

Nov. 11 (delayed from Nov. 10): SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-69 mission with 24 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:28 p.m. The first-stage booster for this mission made its 12th flight and made a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. The launch came 4 hours and 6 minutes after the Koreasat-6A mission at neighboring KSC. Read more.

Nov. 14: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-68 mission with 24 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:21 a.m. The first-stage booster for the mission made its 18th flight with a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

Nov. 17: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Optus-X mission to launch a geostationary communication satellite built by Northrop Grumman for the Australian company Optus from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A during window at 5:28 p.m. This was the 16th mission for the first-stage booster, which was used on Crew-5, CRS-28 and NG-20 among other missions, making another recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Nov. 18: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the GSAT-20 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:31 p.m. The first-stage booster for the mission flew for the 19th time and made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. Read more.

Nov. 21: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-66 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:07 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 20th time and made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

Nov. 25: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starliner 12-1 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:02 a.m. with 23 Starlink satellites including 12 with Direct to Cell capabilities. The first-stage booster made its 13th flight landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. The booster turnaround from its last flight set a record for SpaceX coming at 13 days 12 hours 44 minutes.

Nov. 26 (Delayed from Nov. 25): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-76 mission from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 11:41 p.m. This was the 15th flight for the first stage booster with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

Nov. 30: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-65 mission with 24 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12 a.m. First-stage booster flew for the 6th time making a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.

Dec. 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-70 mission with 24 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:13 a.m. This was the record 24th launch of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Read more.

Dec. 5: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Sirius XM-9 mission from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 11:10 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 19th time landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions, which had its 100th booster landing. The mission was the 3rd in less than 30 hours for SpaceX among its 2 Florida and 1 California launch pads. Read more.

Dec. 8: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-5 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:12 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the second time having been one of the two used on the GOES-U Falcon Heavy mission. It made a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

Dec. 12: Army and Navy hypersonic missile launch test from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 46. Read more.

Dec. 16 (Delayed from Dec. 13): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the RRT-1 mission of a GPS III satellite under a National Security Space Launch contract that switched from United Launch Alliance because of delays in Vulcan rocket certification. Launch occurred from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:52 p.m. This was the fourth launch of the first-stage booster that made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. The mission was one of five awarded in 2023 to ULA under the NSSF Phase 2 task orders worth $566 million, but the individual value was not released by the DOD. SpaceX that year had been awarded three missions worth $280. With the switch, the five years’ worth of orders under NSSF Phase 2 have ULA with 25 missions ordered to SpaceX’s 23 missions, for what was originally targeted to be a 60% to 40% order ration in favor of ULA. Read more.

Dec. 17 (Delayed from Dec. 15): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the mPower-E Mission with two telecom satellites for Luxembourg-based SES from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 5:26 p.m. This was the first launch of the first-stage booster with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. It marked the 90th launch in 2024 from all providers on the Space Coast. Read more.

Dec. 23: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-2 mission from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 12:35 a.m. First-stage booster made its 14th flight landing on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic.

Dec. 29 (Delayed from Dec. 20, 22): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Astranis MicroGeo mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at midnight. The first-stage booster that had been tapped during the original attempts was discarded for a new booster. The new one flew for the 7th time, having also flown on the Crew-8, Polaris Dawn, CRS-31 and three Starlink missions. It made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. This was the 92nd launch of the year on the Space Coast. Read more.

Dec. 31 (Delayed from Dec. 30): SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 12-6 mission with 21 Starlink satellites including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 12:39 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 16th time having previously flown the Crew-6 mission among its 15 other flights. It made a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. This was the 93rd and final launch of the year on the Space Coast. Read more.

LAUNCHED IN 2023

Jan. 3: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the Transporter-6 mission carrying 114 payloads for a variety of customers blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:56 a.m. Read more.

Jan. 9: A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off carrying 40 satellites for OneWeb at 11:50 p.m. Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. Read more.

Jan. 15: The fifth-ever flight of SpaceX’s powerhouse Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off at 5:56 p.m. from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A on a mission for the Space Force dubbed USSF-67. Read more.

Jan. 18: A SpaceX Falcon 9 on the GPS III Space Vehicle 06 mission for the Space Force rose through the pink, orange and blue horizon at 7:24 a.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. Read more.

Jan. 26: SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink 5-2 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 launched at 4:32 a.m. sending up 56 Starlink satellites. Read more.

Feb. 2: Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-3 from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 2:43 a.m. 200th successful flight of Falcon 9 on mission to send up 53 Starlink satellites. Read more.

Feb. 6: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Amazonas-6 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 lifted off at 8:32 p.m. Payload is communications satellite for Hispasat known also as the Amazonas Nexus. Read more.

Feb. 12: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-4 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 launched 55 Starlink satellites at 12:10 a.m. This set a then-record turnaround between launches from the same pad for SpaceX coming just five days, three hours, and 38 minutes since the Feb. 6 launch. Read more.

Feb. 17: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Inmarsat’s I-6 F2 satellite launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:59 p.m. The second of six planned communication satellite launches, the first of which came in 2021 with the final coming by 2025. Read more.

Feb. 27: SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink 6-1 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:13 p.m. carrying 21 of the second-generation Starlink satellites. Read more.

March 2: Crew-6 mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching Crew Dragon Endeavour from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39-A at 12:34 a.m. A Feb. 27 attempt was scrubbed with less than three minutes before liftoff. Flying were NASA astronauts mission commander Stephen Bowen and pilot Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, heading to the International Space Station for around a six-month stay. It’s the sixth SpaceX operational mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Read more.

March 9: A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off carrying 40 satellites for OneWeb launched at 2:13 p.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. The first-stage booster flew for the 13th time landing at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1. Read more.

March 14: After arrival of Crew-6 and departure of Crew-5 to make room for a cargo Dragon, SpaceX Falcon 9 launched a cargo Dragon spacecraft on CRS-27, the 27th resupply mission to the International Space Station from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A at 8:30 p.m. Read more.

March 17: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the SES 18 and 19 mission, a pair of communication satellites set to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. Set a record for SpaceX mission turnaround with launch only four hours and 17 minutes after a Starlink launch from California. Read more.

March 22: Relativity Space Terran-1, a 3D-printed rocket awaiting company’s first-ever launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 16 at 11:25 p.m. While first stage successfully separated, the second stage engine did not get it into orbit. Read more.

March 24: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-5 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:43 a.m. carrying 56 Starlink satellites to orbit. The booster made its 10th flight. Read more.

March 29: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-10 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station launched at 4:01 p.m. The booster making its fourth flight landed on Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. Read more.

April 7: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Intelsat 40e mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:30 a.m. Read more.

April 19: SpaceX Falcon 9 launch on Starlink 6-2 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:31 a.m. with 21 Starlink satellites. The first-stage booster made its eighth flight with a recovery on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

April 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the SES 03b mPOWER-B mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:12 p.m. Read more.

April 30: SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch of ViaSat-3 Americas’ communications satellite from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39-A at 8:26 p.m. All three boosters were expended, so no sonic boom landings. Also flying were payloads for Astranis Space Technologies and Gravity Space headed for geostationary orbits. It’s the sixth-ever Falcon Heavy launch. The launch pad endured a lightning strike on April 27, but SpaceX said the rocket was healthy for the attempt. Read more.

May 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-6 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with 56 Starlink satellites at 3:31 a.m. The first-stage booster making its eighth flight was recovered once again on the droneship called A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

May 14: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 launnched at 1:03 a.m. Read more.

May 19: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-3 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:19 a.m. carrying 22 second-gen Starlink satellites. The first-stage booster made its fifth flight and landing on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in Atlantic. Read more.

May 21: Axiom 2 mission with four private passengers launched to the International Space Station for an eight-day visit flying on a SpaceX Falcon 9 topped with Crew Dragon Freedom from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A at 5:37 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the first time with a return to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1. This is only the second crewed mission from the U.S. in 2023 following March’s Crew-6 mission. The second Axiom Space private mission to the International Space Station following 2022′s Axiom 1 mission. Axiom Space’s Director of Human Spaceflight and former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is the mission commander with aviator John Shoffner as pilot and two mission specialist seats paid for by the Saudi Space Commission, Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali AlQarni. Read more.

May 27: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the ArabSat BADR-8 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:30 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 14th flight with a landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. Read more.

June 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-4 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with 22 second-generation Starlink satellites at 8:20 a.m. The first-stage booster made its third flight and was able to land down range on droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. The launch came 13 years to the day since the first Falcon 9 launch in 2010. It was the 229th attempt of a Falcon 9 launch with 228 of the 229 successful. Read more.

June 5 (Delayed from June 3, 4): SpaceX Falcon 9 on CRS-28 launched a cargo Dragon spacecraft, the 28th resupply mission to the International Space Station from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A at at 11:47 a.m. The first-stage booster made its fifth flight and SpaceX recovered it downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. This is the fourth flight of the crew Dragon, which will be bring up nearly 7,000 pounds of supplies, dock to the station 41 hours after launch and remain on the station for three weeks. Read more.

June 12: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-11 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with 53 of the company’s internet satellites at 3:10 a.m. The first stage booster flew for the ninth time with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

June 18: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the PSN MSF mission to launch the Satria communications satellite for the Indonesian government and PSN, an Indonesian satellite operator. This satellite will provide broadband internet and communications capability for public use facilities in Indonesia’s rural regions. Liftoff was at 6:21 p.m. with the first-stage booster making its 12th flight and once again landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

June 22: United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy on NROL-68 for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command and the National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37B lifted off at 5:18 a.m. This was the second-to-last Delta IV Heavy launch with the final one expected in 2024. Read more.

June 23: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 5-12 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 carrying 56 Starlink satellites at 11:35 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the ninth time and landed on a droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

July 1: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the ESA Euclid space telescope mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:12 a.m. The European Space Agency telescope is designed to make a 3D map of the universe by looking at billions of galaxies up to 10 billion light years away across one third of the sky. Read more.

July 9: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-5 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:58 p.m. The booster made a record 16th flight and was recovered again downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

July 15: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-15 mission with 54 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:50 p.m. (early Friday scrubbed 40 seconds before launch, and early Saturday option passed over) Booster made a record-tying 16th fligh landing on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

July 23: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-6 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:50 p.m. carrying 22 of its v2 mini Starlink satellites. The booster flew for the sixth time and made a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

July 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-7 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:01 a.m. with 22 Starlink satellites. Booster flew for the 15th time including crewed launches Inspiration4 and Ax-1, and made recovery landing on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. The launch set a record for turnaround time for the company from a single launch pad coming four days, three hours, and 11 minutes since the July 23 launch. The previous record was set from Feb. 6-12 at five days, three hours, and 38 minutes. Read more.

July 28: SpaceX Falcon Heavy from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A that launched a telecom satellite for Hughes Network Systems called the Jupiter 3 EchoStar XXIV at 11:04 p.m. The two side boosters were recovered at Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This was the third Falcon Heavy launch of 2023 and seventh overall. Read more.

Aug. 3: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Intelsat G-37 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1 a.m. The first-stage booster made its sixth flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

Aug. 6: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-8 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:41 p.m. with 22 Starlink V2 minis. The first-stage booster made its fourth flight with another recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. The turnaround time between the Aug. 3 Intelsat G-37 mission and this mission broke SpaceX’s previous record for time between launches from a single launch pad. Previous record was from July 24-28 with a turnaround of four days, three hours, and 11 minutes. This one came in at three days, 21 hours, 41 minutes. Read more.

Aug. 11: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-9 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:17 a.m. Payload is 22 of the V2 mini Starlink satellites. First-stage booster flew for the ninth time with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. Read more.

Aug. 16: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-10 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with 22 of the V2 mini Starlink satellites. The first-stage booster made its 13th flight and SpaceX was able to recover it again on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. Read more.

Aug. 26: SpaceX Crew-7 mission on a Falcon 9 launching the Crew Dragon Endurance from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39-A lifted off at 3:27 a.m. liftoff. It’s the seventh SpaceX operational mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Flying are NASA astronaut and mission commander Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA astronaut and pilot Andreas Mogensen, mission specialist JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and mission specialist Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov. This will be Endurance’s third spaceflight after having been used on the Crew-3 and Crew-5 missions. The launch will use a new first-stage booster. The crew will arrive at 8:50 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 27. with hatch opening about two hours later. It will stay docked about 190 days. Read more.

Aug. 26: SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink 6-11 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:05 p.m. with 22 Starlink satellites. The first stage flew for the third time and landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.

Aug. 31: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-13 mission carrying 22 of the v2 Starlink minis from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:21 p.m. It was SpaceX’s ninth launch of the calendar month matching the record nine launches it had in May. It was the company’s 60th orbital launch of the year. The first-stage booster flew for the seventh time and made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

Sept. 3: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-12 mission carrying 21 of the v2 Starlink minis from Kennedy Space Center’s Space Launch Complex 39-A at 10:47 p.m. It marked the 62nd SpaceX orbital launch in 2023 besting the 61 launches the company performed in 2022. The first-stage booster on the flight made its 10th launch and was able to make its recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Sept. 8: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-14 mission carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 took off at 11:12 p.m. The first-stage booster made its seventh flight with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. Read more.

Sept. 10 (delayed from Aug. 29): United Launch Alliance Atlas V on the SILENTBARKER/NROL-107 for the National Reconnaissance Office and Space Force from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 8:47 a.m.. Delayed because of Tropical Storm Idalia. This was the second ULA launch of 2023. SILENTBARKER’s classified mission is to improve space domain awareness to support national security and provide intelligence data to U.S. senior policy makers, the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense. It will provide the capability to search, detect and track objects from space-based sensors for timely custody and event detection. Read more.

Sept. 15: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-16 mission, carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 launching at 11:38 p.m. The first-stage booster for the mission made its fifth flight with a landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. It marked SpaceX’s 65th orbital launch of the year including missions from Canaveral, KSC and California. Read more.

Sept. 19: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-17 mission, carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 launching at 11:38 p.m. This was a record reuse flight for the first-stage booster flying for a 17th time with a recovery landing on the droneship A Short Fall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Sept.23: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-18 mission, carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:38 p.m. The first-stage booster made a record-tying 17th flight with a recovery landing down range on droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Sept.29: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-19 mission, carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10 p.m. The booster on this flight made its 10th launch having flown on CRS-24, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13F, OneWeb 1, SES-18 and SES-19 and five Starlink missions. It made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. This was SpaceX’s 69th launch of the year, its 49th from the Space Coast, 39th from Cape Canaveral and the other 10 from KSC. With only three non-SpaceX flights this year, it was the Space Coast’s 52nd overall. Read more.

Oct. 5: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-21 mission with 22 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:36 a.m. The booster made its eighth flight with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. This was SpaceX’s 70th launch of the year, its 50th from the Space Coast, 40th from Cape Canaveral. With only three non-SpaceX flights this year, it is the Space Coast’s 53rd overall. Read more.

Oct. 6: United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 2:06 p.m. Payload was Amazon’s two test Project Kuiper satellites that were set to fly on ULA’s first Vulcan Centaur rocket, but switched to one of the nine Atlas rockets Amazon had previously purchased from ULA as Vulcan had been delayed to no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2023. Read more.

Oct. 13 (Delayed from Oct. 12): A SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched NASA’s Psyche probe into space launch from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39-A at 10:19 a.m. The probe was delayed from 2022, and headed for the asteroid Psyche, using a Mars-gravity assist and not arriving until August 2029. Psyche is a nickel-iron core asteroid that orbits the sun beyond Mars anywhere from 235 million to 309 million miles away. The two side boosters returned for a land landing at Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Read more.

Oct. 13 (Delayed from Oct. 8): SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-22 mission with 22 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:01 p.m. The first-stage booster for the mission is making its 14th flight, and made another recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas down range in the Atlantic. The launch came 8 hours and 42 minutes after the Falcon Heavy launch from nearby KSC earlier in the day. Read more.

Oct. 17: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-23 mission with 22 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:36 p.m. This is the first-stage booster made its 16th flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. This marked the Space Coasts’ 57th launch of the year, which matched the total it had in 2022. Read more.

Oct. 21: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-24 mission with 23 of its Starlink satellites launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:17 p.m. The first-stage booster made its fourth flight with a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. This became the record 58th launch from the Space Coast for the year. Read more.

Oct. 29: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-25 mission with 23 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:20 p.m. This was the 59th launch from the Space Coast for the year. The first-stage booster flew for the eighth time and made a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed down range in the Atlantic. Read more.

Nov. 3: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-26 mission with 23 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:37 p.m. This was the 60th launch from the Space Coast for the year. The first-stage booster flew for a record 18th time and made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed down range in the Atlantic. Read more.

Nov. 8: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-27 mission with 23 of its Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 targeting 12:05 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 11th flight with a landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions downrange in the Atlantic. This was the 61st launch from the Space Coast for the year. Read more.

Nov. 9: SpaceX Falcon 9 with cargo Dragon on the CRS-29 mission to carry supplies to the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-B at 8:28 p.m. It’s the 29th resupply mission for SpaceX with its cargo Dragon filled with 6,500 pounds of supplies for the Expedition 70 crew with an expected arrival to the ISS about 5:20 a.m. Saturday. It includes NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) science experiment to measure atmospheric gravity waves and how it could affect Earth’s climate and the Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low-Earth-Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T), a technology demonstration for laser communications among the ISS, an orbiting relay satellite and a ground-based observatory on Earth. The first-stage booster flew for the second time and landed back at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1. Read more.

Nov. 12: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the SES O3b mPOWER mission to medium-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 4:08 p.m. First stage made its 9th flight with a recovery landing on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Nov. 18: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-28 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:05 a.m. with 23 Starlink satellites. First-stage booster flew for the 11th time and landed on the droneship Just Read the Instructions This was the 64th launch from the Space Coast in 2023. This launch came hours ahead of the Starship and Super Heavy launch attempt in Texas. Read more.

Nov. 22: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-29 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:47 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 15th time and landed on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. This marked the 65th launch from the Space Coast in 2023. Read more.

Nov. 27: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-30 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40at 11:20 p.m. This was a southerly trajectory launch. The booster flew for the 17th time (3rd booster to do so) and landed on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. It was the 66th launch of the year from the Space Coast, 62nd from SpaceX in Florida, and 87th orbital launch from SpaceX including California missions. Read more.

Dec. 2: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-31 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11 p.m. First stage booster flew for the sixth time and landed on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. It marked the 67th launch of the year from the Space Coast, 63rd from SpaceX in Florida, and 89th orbital launch from SpaceX including California missions.

Dec. 7: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-32 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:07 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the ninth time with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed downrange in the Atlantic. This was the 68th launch from the Space Coast in 2023. Read more.

Dec. 18 (Delayed from Dec. 11, 12, 13) SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-34 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:01 p.m. Read more.

Dec. 23: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-32 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:33 a.m. This was a record 19th flight for the first-stage booster having flown previously on Crew Demo-2, ANASIS-11, CRS-21, Transporter-1, Transporter-3 and 13 Starlink missions. It made a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions downrange in the Atlantic. This was the 70th Space Coast launch of the year. Read more.

Dec. 28 (Delayed from Dec. 10, 11, 13): SpaceX Falcon Heavy from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A on USSF-52, the third mission for the Space Force, launching the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle on its seventh trip to space at 8:07 p.m. The side boosters flew for the fifth time, previously used on the Psyche mission, two Space Force missions and one commercial flight with another double land landing at Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Read more.

Dec. 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-36 mission with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 targeting 11:01 p.m. This was the 12th flight for the first-stage booster with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. This was a record turnaround among SpaceX launches from Space Coast launch pads at 2 hours and 54 minutes besting October’s double launch that saw a Falcon 9 launch at CCSFS just eight hours, 42 minutes after a Falcon Heavy launch at KSC. Read more.

Follow Orlando Sentinel space coverage at Facebook.com/goforlaunchsentinel.

Dolphins Deep Dive: Upcoming NFL scouting combine | VIDEO

Thu, 02/19/2026 - 18:25

Sun Sentinel Miami Dolphins columnist Chris Perkins and reporter David Furones discuss the upcoming NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis and what to expect.

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Dolphins Deep Dive: Have you changed thoughts on Tua? | VIDEO

Thu, 02/19/2026 - 18:18

Sun Sentinel Miami Dolphins columnist Chris Perkins and reporter David Furones discuss what to do with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

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Prosecutors stand by former Black Panther’s conviction but accuse judge of misconduct when he prosecuted the case

Thu, 02/19/2026 - 17:53

By KATE BRUMBACK

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia prosecutors defending the 2000 murder conviction of a onetime Black Panther leader known as H. Rap Brown say new DNA evidence still points strongly to his guilt in the shooting of two sheriff’s deputies. However, they also accuse the case’s original lead prosecutor, now a Fulton County judge who has handled several high-profile political cases, of “grave and clear” misconduct.

The striking Wednesday filing by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office acknowledges serious wrongdoing by the former prosecutor and an FBI agent involved in the original investigation. But it argues that modern DNA testing, combined with ballistic evidence and trial testimony, leaves little doubt that Brown — by then known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin — was responsible for the attack that killed one deputy and wounded another outside of Al-Amin’s Atlanta home.

The former prosecutor, Robert McBurney, is a superior court judge and has been involved in some of the most politically charged cases in the country. Prosecutors described his conduct in Al-Amin’s trial as “the most egregious” issue in the case.

FILE – Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seen at the Georgia State Capitol on Dec. 17, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

Despite standing by the conviction, Willis’ office said it does “not object to a hearing to evaluate the case in its entirety,” potentially keeping alive a public reexamination of a prosecution that has long divided civil rights advocates and law enforcement.

Al-Amin died in prison in November, but his family wants a hearing to clear his name, their attorney Mawuli Davis said, adding, “His legacy is still at the center of this.”

The lead prosecutor

McBurney oversaw the special grand jury Willis used in her investigation that eventually resulted in the indictment of Trump and others over allegations that they illegally tried to overturn the president’s narrow 2020 election loss in Georgia. Notably, though, McBurney barred Willis from seeking charges against then-state Sen. Burt Jones because she had hosted a fundraiser for his Democratic opponent in the lieutenant governor’s race, which McBurney ruled created an “actual and untenable” conflict of interest.

FILE – Chief Judge Robert McBurney, of the Superior Court of Fulton County, sits in his courtroom, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

McBurney also declared Georgia’s restrictive abortion law unconstitutional — a finding the state Supreme Court has vacated in a case that is ongoing.

“A trifecta of issues”

“This case had a trifecta of issues which undermined the process and the public’s confidence in justice,” the filing says.

During closing arguments at trial, McBurney displayed a chart titled “Questions for the defendant” and asked questions meant to focus the jury’s attention on the fact that Al-Amin didn’t testify. Al-Amin also had court permission to remain seated during the trial for religious reasons, including not standing when the jury entered. McBurney implored the jury, “Don’t stand for him.”

Federal courts have ruled that McBurney violated Al-Amin’s constitutional rights, but that it’s unlikely his actions substantially affected the verdict.

This week’s filing says McBurney “crossed the line from aggressive advocacy into misconduct that undermined the core principles of justice,” accusing him of misrepresenting evidence and withholding critical information from the defense, among other things.

“These were not minor oversights; they reflected a troubling pattern of behavior that prioritized winning over truth, and conviction over justice,” the filing says.

McBurney did not immediately respond to an email Thursday seeking comment.

FBI Special Agent James Campbell approached Al-Amin while he was on the ground in handcuffs, kicked and spit on him, and said, “This is what we do to cop killers,” the filing says. A reprimand of Campbell “did not clear SA Campbell’s stain on the investigation,” it says.

Lawyers for Al-Amin have also maintained that Campbell planted the guns used to shoot the deputies at the site where Al-Amin was arrested.

The Associated Press was unable to find contact information for Campbell to seek comment.

Campbell had been transferred to Atlanta after shooting an unarmed Muslim man in the back of the head, the filing says. That man’s supporters accused Campbell of planting a gun found at the scene.

The judge did not allow the jury to hear about the prior shooting after the defense presented newspaper articles about it, wanting to use that shooting to demonstrate bias and motive to plant guns. If defense attorneys had presented recently interviewed witnesses rather than relying on articles, the judge likely would have allowed the jury to consider that information, the new filing argues.

New DNA evidence

Al-Amin’s lawyers argued that nothing connected Al-Amin to the guns used to shoot the deputies. Willis’ office used DNA testing that wasn’t available at the time of the trial to test the guns and related items.

The tests excluded Al-Amin from the DNA found on both guns. But Al-Amin’s DNA was identified on a leather belt wrapped around one of the guns, the filing says. That evidence is a strong indication of his guilt, especially when paired with prior ballistics evidence and testimony, the filing says.

The shooting Related Articles

As a radical activist in the 1960s, Al-Amin once said violence was “as American as cherry pie” and that Black people would use violence, if needed, to fight oppression.

He converted to Islam during a prison stint and moved to Atlanta in the 1970s, becoming the leader of one of the nation’s largest black Muslim groups, the National Ummah.

On March 16, 2000, Fulton County sheriff’s deputies Ricky Kinchen and Aldranon English went to Atlanta’s West End neighborhood, where Al-Amin lived, was an imam and owned a grocery store, to serve a warrant for failure to appear in court on charges of driving a stolen car and impersonating a police officer during a traffic stop the previous year.

English testified at trial that Al-Amin fired a high-powered assault rifle when the deputies tried to arrest him. Then, prosecutors said, he used a handgun to fire three shots into Kinchen’s groin as the wounded officer lay in the street.

He was arrested four days later in White Hall, Alabama, a small town where he had helped develop a Muslim community.

Judge orders takeover of health care operations in Arizona prisons after years of poor care

Thu, 02/19/2026 - 17:47

By JACQUES BILLEAUD

PHOENIX (AP) — A federal judge has ordered a takeover of health care operations in Arizona’s prisons and will appoint an official to run the system after years of complaints about poor medical and mental health care.

The decision on Thursday by U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver came after her 2022 verdict that concluded Arizona had violated prisoners’ rights by providing inadequate care that led to suffering and preventable deaths.

Silver wrote that the state hasn’t gotten a semblance of compliance with court-ordered changes and the Constitution after nearly 14 years of litigation, saying “this approach has not only failed completely, but, if continued, would be nothing short of judicial indulgence of deeply entrenched unconstitutional conduct.”

The judge said prisoners still remain exposed to “an intolerable grave and immediate threat of continuing harm and suffering because the systemic deficiencies pervade the administration of health care.”

The Associated Press left a message for the corrections department after the order was issued. The state and attorneys representing prisoners have 60 days to submit a list of candidates to run health and mental health care operations in prisons.

“This decision means that an independent authority will be able to implement the systemic changes necessary to ensure that medical and mental health care meets constitutional standards,” said David Fathi, one of the lawyers representing the prisoners. “This is a life-saving intervention, and it brings hope that the preventable suffering and deaths that have haunted Arizona’s prison system for over a decade can finally end.”

Lawyers for prisoners say Arizona has made few improvements since the verdict and asked the judge for the more drastic remedy of creating such a “receivership,” arguing system remains broken and prisoners who need care are still in danger.

For over a decade, state government has been dogged by criticism that its health care system for the 25,000 inmates in Arizona’s state-run prisons was run shoddily and callously.

The state had vowed to overhaul medical and mental health services for prisoners in a 2014 settlement, but was soon accused of failing to keep many of those promises. That led to $2.5 million in contempt of court fines against the state and, eventually, the revocation of the agreement by Silver, who explained that corrections officials had shown little interest in making the changes.

The judge then ruled against the state at a 2022 trial, issuing an injunction requiring corrections authorities to fix the constitutional violations.

While attorneys for prisoners say the state lacks the leadership to comply within a reasonable amount of time, the corrections department said it has transformed the prison health care system over the last two years, such as expanding access to treatments, increasing staff and opening medical housing units.

Corrections officials say the opposing side refuses to acknowledge their progress and “focus on the reputation and circumstances of the past rather than recognizing or even supporting the good work of the present.” Lawyers for the department say the agency’s leadership has been acting in good faith with the court’s orders.

In September 2019, lawyers representing the prisoners made a similar request for a takeover, but Silver shied away from it, saying she would revive that possibility if the state acts in bad faith or fails to comply with the court-ordered changes. Past receiverships have been ordered for prisons in other states. In California in 2005, a federal judge seized control of the prison medical system after finding that an average of one inmate a week was dying of medical neglect or malpractice.

The Arizona lawsuit does not cover the nearly 10,000 people incarcerated in private prisons for state convictions.

Memorial services for Rev. Jesse Jackson expanded to include South Carolina and Washington, DC

Thu, 02/19/2026 - 17:26

By SOPHIA TAREEN

CHICAGO (AP) — Memorial services honoring the life of the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. will be expanded beyond Chicago with events in Washington, D.C., and South Carolina, the late civil rights leader’s organization announced Thursday.

Jackson, a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate, died earlier this week at age 84 after battling a rare neurological disorder that affected his ability to move and talk.

Jackson will still lie in repose next week at the Chicago headquarters of his Rainbow PUSH Coalition with a public celebration of life and homegoing services to follow, though dates for Chicago events have been changed. Formal services were added, scheduled from March 1 to March 4 in Washington, D.C., and South Carolina, where Jackson was born and raised.

Rainbow PUSH did not offer further details.

Jackson’s adult children gathered outside the family home in Chicago on Wednesday, saying the funeral services would be large gatherings where everyone would be welcomed. They also vowed to continue his decades of advocacy.

“Although his body is absent from us, his spirit suffuses and infuses us, and it charges us to continue with the work,” said Santita Jackson, his eldest child.

Santita Jackson speaks during a news conference regarding the death of her father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, outside the family home Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Jesse Jackson, Jr. stands near a picture of his father, the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, during a news conference outside the family home in Chicago, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Yusef Jackson speaks during a news conference regarding the death of his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, outside the family home Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Show Caption1 of 3Santita Jackson speaks during a news conference regarding the death of her father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, outside the family home Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley) Expand

In Chicago, a public celebration of life will be held at House of Hope, a 10,000-seat church, on March 6, followed by private homegoing services the next day at Rainbow PUSH, which will be livestreamed.

Jackson rose to prominence six decades ago as a protégé of King, joining the voting rights march King led from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. King later dispatched Jackson to Chicago to launch Operation Breadbasket, a Southern Christian Leadership Conference effort to pressure companies to hire Black workers. Jackson was with King on April 4, 1968, when the civil rights leader was killed.

Venezuela approves amnesty bill that could see release of hundreds detained for political reasons

Thu, 02/19/2026 - 17:19

By REGINA GARCIA CANO, Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s legislature on Thursday approved an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of politicians, activists, lawyers and many others, effectively acknowledging that the government has held hundreds of people in prison for political motivations.

The approval marks a stark turn for the South American nation, where authorities have for decades denied holding any political prisoners. It is the latest policy reversal following the stunning U.S. military raid in the country’s capital, Caracas, to capture then-President Nicolás Maduro.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who proposed the bill late last month, is expected to sign the measure.

The bill could benefit opposition members, activists, human rights defenders, journalists and many others who were targeted by the ruling party over the past 27 years. The debate was suspended last week after lawmakers were unable to agree on some issues, including whether people who left the country to avoid detention can be granted amnesty, and laid bare the resistance from some ruling-party loyalists to see opposition members be granted relief.

Rodríguez proposed the bill weeks after the U.S. military captured Maduro on Jan. 3 in Caracas and took him to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

Venezuela’s government has been quick to comply with orders from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, including last month’s overhaul of the country’s oil

As presented last week, the bill’s purpose is to grant people “a general and full amnesty for crimes or offenses committed” during specific periods since 1999 that were marked by politically-driven conflicts in Venezuela, including “acts of politically motivated violence” in the context of the 2024 presidential election. The aftermath of that election led to protests and the arrest of more than 2,000 people, including minors.

Lawmakers voted in favor of the measure’s purpose, but they paused the debate over disagreements on who it would cover, such as people whom the government has accused of various offenses but have evaded trial by hiding in Venezuela or seeking exile abroad. Ruling party lawmakers, including Maduro’s son, insisted during last week’s debate that those individuals should appear before the justice system first to qualify for amnesty as Venezuela’s law does not allow people to be tried in absentia.

“When one sins, I don’t absolve myself at home; I must go to church, I will go to confession (and say), ’Father, I confess that I have sinned,” Nicolás Maduro Guerra said, comparing the church with Venezuela’s justice system. “Therefore, the ritual of saying, ‘I came to the rule of law, and I acknowledge that we are under the law, under strong institutions that have endured and upheld the republic’ … is important.”

His statement, however, ignores that many of the accused, including people currently in prison, often face trumped up charges, are denied attorneys and lack access to any evidence against them. It also overlooks that cases are overseen by rubber-stamping, ruling-party faithful judges.

General amnesty has long been a central demand of Venezuela’s opposition and human rights organizations, but they have viewed the proposal with cautious optimism and raised several concerns about eligibility and implementation.

Venezuela-based prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal estimates more than 600 people are in custody for political reasons.

In the days after Maduro’s capture, Rodríguez’s government announced it would release a significant number of prisoners. But relatives and human rights watchdogs have criticized the slow pace of releases. Foro Penal has tallied 448.

Families hoping for the release of their loved ones have spent days outside detention facilities. A few began a hunger strike on Saturday.

Daily Horoscope for February 20, 2026

Thu, 02/19/2026 - 17:00

General Daily Insight for February 20, 2026

Our illusions are likely to come into contact with reality today. At 11:54 am EST, structured Saturn chases down dreamy Neptune in bold Aries, demanding accountability where imagination has roamed too recklessly. Disappointing realizations are possible, but this is also a great opportunity to simplify big dreams into doable steps. The emotional Moon then squares expansive Jupiter, potentially adding mood swings to this mix. We don’t have to solve all the world’s problems today, but we can look for manageable ways to start!

Aries

March 21 – April 19

Aries, start fresh with clear, honest intent. Serious Saturn pairs up with imaginative Neptune in your 1st House of Identity, urging you to shape a vision with honest limits. You may feel torn between a bold leap and a misty plan. Perhaps you can’t know the whole picture at this time, so look for a first step that makes sense. With the information you gather from that, you can decide what to do next. Still, try to have a basic idea of where you’re going!

Taurus

April 20 – May 20

Quiet structure could currently give your thoughts room to unfold. Karmic Saturn conjoins spiritual Neptune in your 12th House of Spirituality, calling for a routine that protects your rest time. If you notice old worries surfacing in strange dreams, write them down, and try to dig into what’s bringing them up right now. Perhaps you won’t be as available to your friends as you’re used to being — you need to deal with your own stuff, and no one else can do that for you.

Gemini

May 21 – June 20

What future are your friendships building now? Responsible Saturn checks in with spacey Neptune in your 11th House of Friendship and Aspirations, asking you to turn hopes into plans your community can rely on. You may feel scattered by options, so pick a shared goal and outline who does what, because clarity keeps enthusiasm supportive rather than chaotic. If an organization proposes a costly event, suggest a pilot version with clear roles before committing funds. Clarify promises so teamwork stays joyful and genuinely supportive today.

Cancer

June 21 – July 22

Making a public statement could currently be necessary. As results-driven Saturn nudges nebulous Neptune in your 10th House of Career and Status, others might need you to give a progress update on a significant project. Although you may prefer the safety of keeping things vague, a proposal naming specific dates and resources shows care for the people who rely on your leadership. Offering them an opportunity to provide feedback could ultimately help you too. Set clear milestones to protect your reputation and reduce stress now.

Leo

July 23 – August 22

Your horizon shimmers with practical promise. Practical Saturn meets idealistic Neptune in your 9th House of Travel and Learning, encouraging you to turn a quest into a structured path. Although you may want to maximize the potential for excitement, a realistic timeline and savings plan can support your adventure without draining your fire. If a course or trip sounds vague, request the syllabus or itinerary before you enroll or buy tickets. Build the map so your courage reaches real places soon.

Virgo

August 23 – September 22

Deep trust grows through careful, kind agreements. Restrictive Saturn unites with elusive Neptune in your 8th House of Shared Resources, asking you to firm up boundaries around money and closeness. You may sense fuzzy expectations, so put numbers and roles in writing while keeping your tone warm and your analysis practical. If a partner suggests merging accounts, start with a shared budget and agree on a schedule for regularly reviewing it together. Set fair terms so closeness feels safe and generous today.

Libra

September 23 – October 22

Finding a comfortable balance in your relationships could be challenging now. As boundary-setting Saturn conjoins compassionate Neptune in your 7th House of Partnership, you may want to be treated better, but you also probably don’t want to come down hard on someone who still has good in them. Perhaps the solution is not all or nothing. You don’t have to kick a frustrating person out of your life entirely — just spending less time with them might provide the relief you need!

Scorpio

October 23 – November 21

Knowing your limits could currently be crucial. Disciplined Saturn encounters illusory Neptune in your 6th House of Work and Health, pushing you to define tasks and protect your focus from distractions. You may feel pulled into others’ crises, so set priorities early and channel your depth into finding meaningful solutions. If a colleague drops a project on your desk, ask for a deadline and confirm what success looks like before accepting. The last thing you need is a moving target!

Sagittarius

November 22 – December 21

Tending a creative spark could currently help it grow into a roaring fire. Ambitious Saturn collaborates with fanciful Neptune in your 5th House of Creativity and Play, asking you to shape inspiration into something you can finish. Although you may want to say yes to every idea, picking one that you’re able to bring to life today is probably the best way to get yourself motivated to do more going forward. Choose focused fun to build confidence and lasting delight.

Capricorn

December 22 – January 19

Your domestic life may call for grounded choices at this time. As realistic Saturn meets dreamy Neptune in your 4th House of Home and Family, you might need to either let go of a particular fantasy or commit to making it happen. Are you trapped by nostalgia for the past or by a longing for a perfect future that hasn’t taken place yet? Neither desire is easy to deal with, but older relatives could at least offer you a more balanced take on historical events.

Aquarius

January 20 – February 18

Which words truly match your intentions? Crystallizing Saturn joins forces with elusive Neptune in your 3rd House of Communication, asking you to shape wispy ideas into clear messages that travel well. As you draft and redraft, read your work aloud and remove flourishes. Simple language carries your originality further, and it shows respect for busy listeners. The full range of emotions that your subject matter stirs in you isn’t necessarily relevant to your audience. Say less with care to be heard and trusted widely.

Pisces

February 19 – March 20

Security can grow as wise boundaries shape dreams. Authoritative Saturn conjoins nebulous Neptune in your 2nd House of Resources, helping you anchor tender values in a realistic budget. You may drift toward magical thinking, so separate needs from nice-to-haves, and price your time honestly. If someone asks for volunteer work, offer a smaller window or a fairer rate to prevent burnout — even when you’re supporting a good cause, your gifts deserve care! Honor your worth to protect stability and gentle generosity today.

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