The flight, designated Starlink 6-103, delivered 29 additional broadband internet satellites into low Earth orbit, expanding the company’s growing Starlink megaconstellation, which now numbers more than 9,600 spacecraft. It marked SpaceX’s 14th Starlink launch of the year, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
The company confirmed that the satellites were successfully deployed roughly one hour after liftoff.
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The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:59:40 a.m. EST (0759:40 UTC). After clearing the pad, the rocket followed a south-easterly trajectory as it climbed into orbit, beginning the process of placing the new satellites into their designated positions.
The 45th Weather Squadron forecast just a 20 percent chance for acceptable weather during the launch window. Meteorologists are tracking potentially severe weather heading into the state over the course of Sunday and heading into Monday.
Watch Falcon 9 launch 29 @Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida https://t.co/MXZL12ETyy
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 16, 2026
“As the low slides eastwards to move off the Georgia coast late tonight, south-southwest winds will increase during the day, even outside of any precipitation,” launch weather officers wrote. “Models have come into better agreement with the timing of a band of pre-frontal showers and storms, currently moving through the Florida Panhandle, reaching the Spaceport just before the opening of the primary window.
“Showers and storms are expected to linger for a few hours into the window before sliding south of the area. While this activity loses intensity as it arrives, strong wind gusts will still be possible. The primary concerns will be the Cumulus Cloud Rule, Surface Electric Fields Rule, and Anvil Cloud Rules, though additional thunderstorm-related rules are likely.”
SpaceX launched the mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number 1090. This was its 10th flight after launching previous missions, like NASA’s Crew-10, CRS-33 and Bandwagon-3.
Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1090 landed on the drone ship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ positioned in the Atlantic Ocean. This was the 142nd landing on this vessel and the 572nd booster landing to date.
