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When does Falcon 9 launch?

Short answer

There's no single date: Falcon 9 launches several times a week, often more than once on the same day, from Cape Canaveral, Kennedy Space Center, and Vandenberg, mostly carrying Starlink batches (as of September 2026). The exact next time is on SpaceX's launch schedule, in UTC, and can change until the last minute.

When does Falcon 9 launch?
Falcon 9 SES-10 launch, first orbital-class reflightFoto: SpaceX (CC0)

A rocket that flies almost daily

Falcon 9 is the highest-cadence launch vehicle in history. SpaceX operates three pads: Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, both in Florida, and Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Between the three, it maintains a continuous flow, driven above all by Starlink constellation deployments, with boosters flying again just weeks after landing. That's why there's no single answer: in any given week there are several Falcon 9 missions scheduled.

Where to check the next date

The reference source is the launches section of SpaceX's website, which lists upcoming missions with date, time, pad, and a link to the webcast, plus an archive of past flights. NASA publishes its own schedule for the missions it contracts, such as cargo runs and crewed Dragon flights to the International Space Station, and broadcasts them on NASA+. Times appear in UTC or in local Florida or California time, so it's worth converting them before planning anything.

Why dates change

A launch can slip for all sorts of reasons: upper-level winds out of limits, storms over the booster recovery zone in the Atlantic or Pacific, a boat inside the exclusion area, an extra data review, or simply another mission taking priority on the same pad. When the window is instantaneous, as with flights to the Space Station, any delay of even seconds forces a wait until the next day. The usual approach is to check the time the morning of launch itself; for crewed missions, NASA also sets the date weeks in advance and confirms it after the flight readiness review.

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