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'Falcon' flies on Star Wars Day: SpaceX launches Starlink satellites from Florida (video, photos)

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Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket — named after the Millennium Falcon — occurred at 4:54 a.m. EDT on May 4th, 2025.

Living up to its Star Wars' namesake, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took flight again, delivering 29 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) on Sunday, May 4th, 2025 — Star Wars Day.

The launch occurred at 4:54 a.m. EDT (0854 GMT) from Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

About 8.5 minutes later, the rocket's first stage came back to Earth, acing its touchdown on the SpaceX drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas." It was the 20th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a company mission description.

a black and white rocket lifts off from the launch pad into the night sky, lighting the area with its bright white engine plume.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a record 29 Starlink satellites lifts off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, May 4, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

With 29 Starlink satellites on board, this was the largest number of the broadband-providing spacecraft on one Falcon 9 launch to date. SpaceX has now launched nearly 8,500 Starlink satellites to date, more than 7,300 of which remain operational in LEO, according to satellite tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell.

a time lapse photo captures the bright streak of a rocket lifting off into the night sky from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 29 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit on Sunday, May 4th, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

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Robert Z. Pearlman
Robert Z. Pearlman
collectSPACE.com Editor, Space.com Contributor

Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com, a daily news publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018.In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History. In 2023, the National Space Club Florida Committee recognized Pearlman with the Kolcum News and Communications Award for excellence in telling the space story along the Space Coast and throughout the world.

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