SpaceX is targeting Friday, Jan. 3 for its first Falcon 9 mission of 2025 as it launches the Thuraya 4 communications satellite from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX announced that it’s gearing up for its next Falcon 9 rocket launch from Florida’s Space Coast on Friday night. In a release, company officials said the launch will send a communications satellite into orbit from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on behalf of the UAE-based company Yahsat.

SpaceX is planning to launch another batch of Starlink satellites, including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities, on a Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday.

After a one-day delay, SpaceX launched a new round of Starlink satellites from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida just after midnight on Tuesday.

Florida's final 2024 tally of 93 orbital launches represents a 29% leap over the previous yearly record of 72, which was just established in 2023.

SpaceX put the final countdown in the books for the Space Coast early Tuesday, adding one more to the record pace of launches for the year. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink satellites lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 12:39 a.