SpaceX's final Falcon 9 Starlink launch from Florida creates gorgeous 'jellyfish' over New York City (video)

SpaceX's launch from Florida early this morning (Aug.

25) was memorable in more ways than one.

The mission, which sent 29 Starlink internet satellites skyward from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 5:33 a.m.

EDT (0933 GMT), was the 100th flight of 2026 for SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.

It was also the 37th flight for this particular vehicle's first stage, setting a new reuse record for the company.

And we learned a few hours after liftoff that it was also the last-ever Falcon 9 Starlink mission to fly from the Sunshine State.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink Group 10-49 mission passes by lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center just before dawn in New York City after launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Aug.

25, 2026, as seen from Hoboken, New Jersey. (Image credit: Getty Images) "From here on, Starlink missions out of Florida will fly on Starship .

The West Coast team will continue regularly launching Starlink from Vandenberg [Space Force Base in California]," Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX vice president of launch, said via X this morning.

"In the last seven years, Falcon has flown ~260 Starlink missions from the Cape … can't wait until we launch that and many more with Starship!" he added.

Starship, which stands more than 400 feet (122 meters) tall, is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, and it's designed to be fully and rapidly reusable.

Starship remains in the testing phase; SpaceX has conducted 13 test flights with the vehicle to date, all of them suborbital.

Starship currently launches only from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas.

But the company is already building pads for the giant rocket in Florida, and it announced today that it plans to break ground next year on Starbase Louisiana, which it says will be able to support thousands of Starship liftoffs per year.