It has been more than two weeks since the Space Coast had seen a rocket take off over Florida’s skies, but SpaceX knocked out its latest sending three communications satellites into orbit on Sunday.
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Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/gZJoPOSxAc
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 13, 2026
A Falcon 9 rocket on the mPOWER-F mission with three satellites for Luxembourg-based SES launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:49 p.m.
These were the final three of 13 O3b mPOWER satellites built by Boeing Space for the company. They are headed to medium-Earth orbit at about 5,000 miles altitude.
The first-stage booster made its 29th flight and made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship pic.twitter.com/rljPtKP85D
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 13, 2026
SpaceX had dialed back its launch plans from Florida removing any missions for its Starlink program on its Falcon 9 rockets. Those had made up the bulk of its missions flown from either Cape Canaveral of Kennedy Space Center over the last several years, and contributed to a record 109 missions flown from all providers in 2026.
But with SpaceX trying to get its Starship and Super Heavy launch tower up and running at KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A, it had already limited KSC missions to just its powerhouse Falcon Heavy rocket. It’s only flown two Falcon Heavy rockets this year.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 launches on the mPOWER-F mission with three communication satellites for Luxembourg-based SES from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (Courtesy/SpaceX)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 launches on the mPOWER-F mission with three communication satellites for Luxembourg-based SES from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (Courtesy/SpaceX)
The last one was actually the last time a rocket flew from Florida, back on August 30, when Falcon Heavy hurled NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Telescope into space.
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With no Starlink missions to fly, SpaceX is limiting itself to commercial customers as well as and human and cargo spaceflights of its Dragon spacecraft from Cape Canaveral.
September could still see the next human spaceflight, but the Crew-13 mission, which includes Central Florida astronaut Luke Delaney, has been delayed to no earlier than the end of the month as SpaceX and NASA work to fix an issue found on that mission’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.
For now, though, SpaceX has no missions slated to fly again from Florida on their manifest.
Sunday’s flight was the 56th orbital rocket launch from Florida this year, with all but seven coming from SpaceX.
United Launch Alliance has flown five, but it has yet to announce when it might launch again.
Blue Origin, which flew once, cannot fly until it completes a rebuild of its launch pad at Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36. It suffered major damage during a hot fire test explosion of its New Glenn rocket earlier this year.
And while NASA launched its Space Launch System rocket on the Artemis II mission this year, it’s not slated to fly again until mid 2027 on Artemis III.
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