SpaceX launched its latest batch of Starlink satellites for its internet megaconstellation shortly after midnight on Tuesday. However, there may have been additional satellites onboard as well.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 12:24 a.m. EST (0524 UTC) to begin the Starlink 13-1 mission.
Peculiarly, the SpaceX webcast didn’t begin on time and picked up a couple minutes into the flight. When it did get underway, it lacked the normal telemetry data and didn’t show any views of the Falcon 9 upper stage as it normally does during a Starlink mission.
The Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1083, was used to launch the mission. It’s previous missions included the launches of Crew-8, Polaris Dawn and CRS-31.
After launching for an eighth time, B1083 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravias,’ which was positioned out in the Atlantic Ocean. This marked the 95 landing for ASOG and the 399th booster landing to date.
The Starlink 13-1 mission will be SpaceX’s fifth dedicated Starlink launch of the year and its ninth orbital launch in 2025. The flight included 21 Starlink satellites onboard.
Notably, most recent flights for the Starlink constellation that have just 21 satellites on board also include 13 that have Direct to Cell capabilities, but none of those were mentioned by SpaceX in the lead up to launch.
When DTC Starlink satellites are absent, SpaceX has been launching batches of 24 Starlink satellites from Florida. Currently, it is poised to launch a batch of 27 satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base no earlier than late Tuesday morning on the Starlink 11-8 mission. This is likely to be the first time SpaceX launches its so-called Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites, which are considerably lighter than their predecessors.
Given that there were only 21 Starlink satellites listed on the Starlink 13-1 mission with no DTCs to speak of, that may suggest that other satellites, perhaps Starshield, were also flying on board. Starshield are the government variant of Starlink and have most recently been flown on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office.
Neither the NRO nor SpaceX has made any comment confirming that Starshield satellites were scheduled to launch as part of the Starlink 13-1 mission, but if it does bear out, it wouldn’t be the first combo mission. The NROL-126 mission, which launched on Nov. 30, 2024, included 20 Starlink satellites and an undisclosed number of Starshield satellites.