SpaceX has plans to start the week with back-to-back launches from Florida and then Starship Tuesday in Texas.

SpaceX launched another batch of its broadband satellites from Florida early Sunday morning (Dec. 8). A Falcon 9 rocket launched 23 Starlink spacecraft, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities, from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sunday at 12:12 a.m. EST (0512 GMT).

At 5:28 p.m. SpaceX launched the Optus-X satellite for Australian telecommunication company, Optus. The rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A, traveling on a due east trajectory. With clouds in the area, most on the Space Coast only saw a short glow before the rocket disappeared.

"The first Starlink satellite direct-to-cell phone constellation is now complete," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via X early on Thursday morning (Dec. 5). "This will enable unmodified cellphones to have internet connectivity in remote areas. Bandwidth per beam is only ~10Mb, but future constellations will be much more capable."

Impressed by SpaceX's rapid advancements, no sooner were the results in than the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration cleared SpaceX to quintuple its Starship launch rate, from five launches per year to 25. But even 25 launches a year isn't good enough for SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell. She wants 100. Image source: Getty Images.

Taking off at 12:12 a.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket disappeared into the night sky. Eight and a half minutes after the lift off, the first stage booster landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship out on the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX will launch a rocket from our Space Coast on Sunday at 12:12 a.m. The Falcon 9 will aim to send 23 new Starlink satellites into orbit. The rocket will also send 13 satellites with direct-to-cell capabilities.

This is the second flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched GOES-U.