Karmactive Team
SpaceX set a new benchmark for rapid space operations early Saturday when its Falcon 9 rocket blasted off in the darkness of Cape Canaveral, setting a record for the fastest turnaround time between launches from the same pad.
The Starlink 10-34 mission lifted off at 12:26 a.m. EDT on June 28, 2025, carrying 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to low Earth orbit. What makes this launch remarkable is its timing – coming just two days, eight hours, 31 minutes, and 10 seconds after the previous launch from the same pad. This beat SpaceX’s previous record set in March by nearly 30 minutes.
The March record, which has now been surpassed, saw the Starlink 12-16 mission launch two days, eight hours, 59 minutes, and 40 seconds after Starlink 12-21 from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40).
Despite weather challenges that brought severe thunderstorms through Florida’s Space Coast earlier in the evening, launch conditions cleared in time for the mission to proceed as scheduled. Meteorologists had issued severe thunderstorm warnings across Central Florida hours before, but by launch time, skies had cleared with visibility extending to 10 miles.For this mission, SpaceX used the Falcon 9 first stage booster designated B1092, which was completing its fifth flight. The booster previously supported missions including CRS-32, NROL-69, and GPS III SV08. Following stage separation, the booster successfully touched down on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, marking the 115th landing on this vessel.
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The launch was particularly significant as it marked the first of a planned “doubleheader” for SpaceX, with another Starlink mission (15-7) scheduled from Vandenberg Space Force Base later the same day. If both launches proceed as planned, SpaceX’s Starlink network will surpass 7,900 active satellites, according to satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.
This latest achievement reflects SpaceX’s growing operational efficiency and rapid reusability capabilities. The company has been systematically reducing turnaround times at all its launch sites throughout 2025, enabling an unprecedented launch cadence. This efficiency extends beyond pad turnaround to include booster reuse, with SpaceX having broken the booster turnaround record in March when booster B1088 launched just nine days after its previous mission.
Saturday’s launch also came on the 10-year anniversary of the CRS-7 mission anomaly, a Falcon 9 rocket that broke apart during a NASA resupply mission to the International Space Station on June 28, 2015. That incident led to significant upgrades for the Falcon 9 rocket that remain in use today.
The launch was the 497th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket, as SpaceX continues its aggressive deployment of Starlink satellites, which provide high-speed internet service to more than 60 countries globally.
