TITUSVILLE, FL – End of an Era! With no advance notice SpaceX announced that todays predawn launch on the venerable Falcon 9 rocket was the final one for Starlink satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Florida Space Coast on Wednesday, Aug. 26
The blastoff involved the record breaking 37th launch for SpaceX Falcon 9 booster B1067 on the Starlink 10-49 mission at 5:33 a.m. ET on Aug. 25 from Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
The fleet-leading Falcon 9 launch soared off pad 40 on a northeasterly trajectory
Sadly, there was no advance notice of this milestone
The Space UpClose team of Ken Kremer and Jean Wright watched from our back yard
We would have sought out a better viewing location had we known
We only learned of the ‘End of an Era’ circumstances post launch via SpaceX VP Kiko Dontchev announced the news on X, formerly twitter – see below:
The payload comprised 29 Starlink V2 mini optimized broadband internet satellites
We have all become used to a fast paced frenetic schedule of launches from Florida – sometimes even 2 or 3 times pre week.
That fast paced launch schedule changes dramatically starting today with a significant slowdown in launches until the SpaceX Starship starts launching regularly and other companies like Relativity, Stokes, Firefly and others come online
That will all take some time to ramp up and
Meanwhile this means there will be less launches than last year from here on the Space Coast
Later in the day I received interview request from local TV stations
Next day on Aug. 26, I received a request for a live interview on FOX 35 Orlando on the End of an Era with the Starlink Falcon 9 rocket launch in Florida – and what it means for the future. Far fewer launches, Starship ahead – and so much more!!
Fox 35 also featured two of my timelapse launch streak photos of the Starlink 10-49 liftoff from pad 40
Watch my complete live interview on Fox 35 here:
Caption: End of the Starlink era, Starship Begins. Thus ends the era of SpaceX on the space coast. The final Starlink launch on a Falcon 9 from Florida has been completed, carving the future for Starship launches. FOX35’s Garrett Wymer spoke with Ken Kremer, Managing Editor of SpaceUpclose on this live via Zoom on Aug 26, 2026
https://youtu.be/txhyoKbAeAk?si=iNpYQk-S4RhRJCki
This was the 37th flight for the first stage booster B1067.37 supporting this mission which previously launched CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, SES O3B mPOWER-A, PSN SATRIA, Telkomsat Merah Putih 2, Galileo, Koreasat-6A, and now 26 Starlink missions.
Following stage separation, the first stage B1067 landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of the Carolinas.
Additional Ken Kremer TV interviews about the ‘End of an Era’:
WESH 2 NBC News Orlando
https://youtu.be/at3AhTu-vbU?si=R5GnEk-zYWYfKQ2-
Caption:
WFTV ABC News Orlando:
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