SpaceX

Just Read the Instructions

A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

Space X Starlink Mission Patch

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-88

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

Space Launch Complex 40

Falcon 9 Block 5

On Sunday January 04, 2026, SpaceX launched the Starlink Group 6-88 mission with a Falcon 9 Block 5 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA.

Description generated from the Launch Library 2 API.
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Object in the Launch Library 2 API: https://ll.thespacedevs.com/2.3.0/launches/ae315ab0-ecda-4c54-99c6-0a8818f55b0d/?format=json
Related news in the Spaceflight News API: https://api.spaceflightnewsapi.net/v4/articles/?launch=ae315ab0-ecda-4c54-99c6-0a8818f55b0d
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Original video: htt...

English

SpaceX Starlink Group 6-88

Unofficial Re-stream

Watch live coverage as SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket with another 29 satellites for the company's Starlink internet service. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for Sunday, January 4, at 1:48 a.m. EST (0648 UTC). The first-stage booster for this mission, believed to be B1101, making its first flight, will land on SpaceX's drone ship 'Just Read the Instructions', stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 8.5 minutes after leaving the launch pad.

The mission, designated Starlink 6-88, will take a south-easterly trajectory on departure from Florida's Space Coast.

Our live coverage with commentary from Spaceflight Now's Will Robinson-Smith will start about one hour prior to launch.

Videos like this are made possible by the support ...

Watch Live: SpaceX launches 1st Starlink mission of 2026 on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral

Unofficial Webcast

SpaceX launch of a batch of 29 Starlink v2-mini satellites for their second-generation high-speed low earth orbit internet satellite constellation.

Launch Window: January 4th from 12:00AM to 03:17AM EST (05:00-08:17 UTC)
Current T0: January 4th at 12:00AM EST (05:00 UTC)

Mission: Falcon 9 launch of 29 Starlink v2 Mini satellites into orbit.
Launch location: Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Earth.
Target orbit: Low-Earth Orbit (LEO); 257x267km 43° orbit
Booster: B1101-1
Booster history: New booster!
Booster recovery: Just Read The Instructions (JRTI)
Fairing recovery: Bob
Rocket trajectory: Southeast passing northeast of the Bahamas.
Payload mass: Approximately 17 tonnes
Stats:
  - SpaceX's 611th launch overall.
  - SpaceX's 2nd launch of the year...

SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Starlink 6-88

Starlink Mission

Official Webcast

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-96

A Shortfall of Gravitas

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-97

Landing Zone 4

The Pandora small satellite was selected in 2021 as an inaugural mission in NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers Program. It includes a 0.45-meter telescope that will improve our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres by disentangling exoplanet signals from their host stars, as well as studying host star variability with long-duration observations of 20 unique planets through visible-light photometry and near-infrared spectroscopy.

Also launching on this launch are ride-share payloads under the "Falcon 9 Twilight mission" manifested by Exolaunch, including satellites from Spire Global and Kepler Communications.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Pandora / Twilight rideshare mission

Vandenberg SFB

Space Launch Complex 4E

ISRO

Small Earth observation satellite from NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) for an "Indian strategic user", details TBD.

This launch will also carry 18 other ride-share payloads.

PSLV-DL | EOS-N1 and others

Satish Dhawan Space Centre

Satish Dhawan Space Centre First Launch Pad

PSLV-DL

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-98

Isar Aerospace

Second test flight of the Isar Spectrum launch vehicle, carrying several cubesats as part of the European Space Agency's “Boost!” program.

Spectrum | Flight Two

Andøya Spaceport

Orbital Launch Pad

Spectrum

Rocket Lab

The NeonSat-1A, carrying a high-resolution optical camera, is designed to test the constellation capabilities of the South Korean government's Earth observation micro-satellite constellation NeonSat (New-space Earth Observation Satellite), in particular technology improvements identified from operations of NeonSat-1 after its launch in April 2024. These technologies will in turn be incorporated into the next 10 NeonSat under construction, as well as providing more site re-visiting capabilities along with NeonSat-1.

The NeonSat constellation is the first satellite system developed by the government using a mass-production approach for precise monitoring of the Korean Peninsula, lead by the Satellite Technology Research Center (SaTReC) at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea’s leading university dedicated to science and technology. Designed to capture near-real time natural disaster monitoring for the Korean peninsula, KAIST’s NEONSAT constellation is a collaboration across multiple Korean academic, industry, and research institutions, including SaTReC, which is leading the program’s system design and engineering. 

The NEONSAT program is funded by the Korean government’s Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT).

Bridging The Swarm Patch

Electron | Bridging The Swarm (NeonSat-1A)

Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1

Electron

USSF-87 will launch two identical Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites GSSAP-7 and GSSAP-8 directly to a near-geosynchronous orbit approximately 36,000 km above the equator.

Data from the GSSAP will uniquely contribute to timely and accurate orbital predictions, further enabling space flight safety including satellite collision avoidance.

Vulcan | USSF-87

Space Launch Complex 41

Vulcan

China Rocket Co.

Possibly an Earth observation satellite for the Pakistan government's SUPARCO, details TBD.

Smart Dragon 3 | Unknown Payload

Sea Launch

Oriental Spaceport mobile launch ship

Smart Dragon 3

This is a replacement satellite for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. The constellation will provide India with an alternative to GPS and will be used for military and civilian use. Located at a geosynchronous orbit, the system will be operated by the Indian government.

GSLV Mk II | IRNSS-1L (NVS-03)

Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad

GSLV Mk. II

Unknown

A batch of satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

First Starlink launch to feature a Falcon 9 booster landing within The Bahamas waters operationally, after the trajectory was tested during launch of Starlink Group 10-12 in February 2025.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-36

Blue Origin

Jacklyn

First flight of Blue Origin's Blue Moon MK1 lunar lander.

New Glenn | Blue Moon Pathfinder

Launch Complex 36A

New Glenn

AST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, required to achieve 24/7 continuous cellular broadband service coverage in the United States, with beams designed to support a capacity of up to 40 MHz, enabling peak data transmission speeds up to 120 Mbps, supporting voice, full data and video applications. The Block 2 BlueBirds, featuring as large as 2400 square foot communications arrays, will be the largest satellites ever commercially deployed in Low Earth orbit once launched.

This launch will feature 4 satellites.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | BlueBird Block 2 #2

Galactic Energy

First test launch of Galactic Energy’s Ceres-2 rocket.

Ceres-2 Y1

Ceres-2 | Demo Flight

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

Launch Area 95A

Ceres-2

First uncrewed orbital test flight of the Gaganyaan capsule.

LVM-3 | Gaganyaan-1

Gaganyaan

Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (GSLV Mk III)

12th test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle. Maiden Flight of Starship V3

Starship IFT patch

Starship | Flight 12

Starbase

Orbital Launch Pad 2

Starship V3

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

QZSS (Quasi Zenith Satellite System) is a Japanese satellite navigation system operating from inclined, elliptical geosynchronous orbits to achieve optimal high-elevation visibility in urban canyons and mountainous areas. The navigation system objective is to broadcast GPS-interoperable and augmentation signals as well as original Japanese (QZSS) signals from a three-spacecraft constellation.

The navigation system objective is to broadcast GPS-interoperable and augmentation signals as well as original Japanese (QZSS) signals from a three-spacecraft constellation in inclined, elliptical geosynchronous orbits.

QZS-5 to 7 Patch

H3-22 | Michibiki 7 (QZS-7)

Tanegashima Space Center

Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2

H3-22

Gregory R. Wiseman

Victor J. Glover

Jeremy Hansen

Christina Koch

NASA

Artemis II is the first crewed mission as part of the Artemis program. Artemis II will send a crew of 4 - 3 Americans and 1 Canadian around the moon and return them back to Earth.

The mission will test the core systems of NASA's Orion spacecraft including the critical life support system, among other systems which could not be tested during Artemis I due to the lack of crew onboard.

Artemis II Patch

SLS Block 1 | Artemis II

Kennedy Space Center

Launch Complex 39B

Orion

SLS Block 1

Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center

Elektro-L is a series of meteorological satellites developed for the Russian Federal Space Agency by NPO Lavochkin. They are designed to capture real-time images of clouds and the Earth's underlying surface, heliogeophysical measurements, collection and translating hydrometeorological and service data.

Proton-M/Blok DM-03 | Elektro-L No.5

Baikonur Cosmodrome

81/24 (81P)

Proton-M Blok DM-03

Jessica Meir

Jack Hathaway

Sophie Adenot

Andrei Fedyaev

Landing Zone  at SLC-40

SpaceX Crew-12 is the twelfth crewed operational flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

Crew-12

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Crew-12

Unknown Pad

Crew Dragon 2

Space One

Third flight of the KAIROS launch vehicle. 

4 satellites will be on board:

* TATARA-1R
* SC-Sat1a
* HErO
* AETS-1

KAIROS | Flight 3

Space Port Kii, Japan

Space One Launch Pad

Kii-based Advanced & Instant ROcket System

Skyroot Aerospace

First launch of Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-I launch vehicle, with several cubesats on board. Payload identities TBD.

Vikram-I | Demo Flight

Vikram-I

Northrop Grumman Space Systems

STP-S29A is a mission under the U.S. Department of Defense's Space Test Program (STP) that will deliver technology demonstrations to orbit and contribute to future space system development, with this launch delivering up to 200 kg of STP cubesats to Low Earth Orbit.

The main payload will be STPSat-7, an ESPA class satellite based on the Aegis Aerospace M-1 satellite bus used on the STPSat-4 mission for hosting research and technology demonstration payloads for the Department of Defense (DoD). One of the payload is U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL) Lightsheet Anomaly Resolution and Debris Observation (LARADO) instrument, used to detect and characterize lethal non-trackable orbital debris with lasers in orbit.

Minotaur IV | STP-S29A

Space Launch Complex 8

Minotaur IV

Tranche 1 Transport Layer A is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites.

The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance.

This launch carries 21 satellites manufactured by Northrop Grumman.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer A

Rocket Launches Today