SpaceX launched its latest Falcon 9 just after midnight on Sunday, adding 23 more Starlink satellites to its growing mega-constellation.

The midnight launch includes 13 satellites with direct-to-cell capabilities. The launch of the Starlink 12-5 mission from Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 12:12 a.m. EST (0512 UTC).

Given Sunday’s launch opportunity, the 45th Weather Squadron predicted there will be no weather-related restrictions to the launch. The outlook indicated a greater than 95 percent chance of good weather at launch, with no listed weather restrictions in place.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster in support of this mission launched for the second time, having previously launched as a Falcon Heavy side booster on the GOES-U mission. However, SpaceX did not distinguish between the two potential launch vehicles and did not specify whether it was B1072 or B1086.

Just over eight minutes after launch, the launch vehicle landed on SpaceX’s A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship. This was the 89th booster landing on ASOG and the 381st booster landing to date.

With the recent launch of the DTC Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on December 5, SpaceX announced that it has completed its first orbital envelope for this part of the constellation. At the time of this payload deployment, SpaceX had launched 362 DTC Starlink satellites.

The first constellation of Starlink satellites direct to cell phones is now complete.

This allows unmodified cell phones to have an Internet connection in remote areas.

The bandwidth per beam is only about 10 MB, but future constellations will be much more powerful. https://t.co/wJHMGEzzE4

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 5, 2024