Monday afternoon, the winds howled and skies over Brevard County looked unfavorable for a rocket launch − but the weather cleared just in time for liftoff. After being pushed back multiple times, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched at 3:43 p.m. Monday, the end of the allotted launch window for the day. Its payload was 24 new Starlink satellites for the ever-growing satellite internet constellation. This Starlink mission became the second launch of 2025, and the first Starlink launch of the year. Eight and a half minutes after lifting off, the Falcon 9 rocket's first-stage landed on the Just Read the Instructions drone ship, which was waiting out on the Atlantic Ocean. No Florida sonic booms were heard. This mission was the first-stage booster's 17th flight. Previous missions include: nine Starlink launches, NASA's Crew-5, CRS-28 resupply mission, Intelsat G-37, Optus-X, Immarsat I6-F2, GPS III-6, and NG-20, which was a Northrop Grumman Cygnus ISS resupply mission. The booster for this mission was originally set to launch the Astranis Space technologies satellites back on December 20, but saw a rare abort with just seconds left on the countdown clock. SpaceX swapped the boosters for that mission, and it launched successfully on December 29. Monday saw that booster return to flight. SpaceX did not state a reason for the Dec. 20 abort, or the booster swap.