Florida’s spaceport, the world’s busiest, is set to become markedly quieter as SpaceX shifts Starlink launches to the US West Coast. An early Tuesday Falcon 9 launch was the last planned Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral until SpaceX begins flying Starship from Florida, according to Kiko Dontchev, the company’s vice president of launch. Dontchev wrote on X that Starlink missions from Florida will fly on Starship from this point, while the team at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California will continue regularly launching Starlink on Falcon 9. Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center sit on adjoining property and share the same East Coast launch range. Last year SpaceX flew Falcon 9 165 times, roughly three times a week, with about 75 percent of those flights carrying Starlink satellites. Florida had been hosting eight or nine launches a month, but for the rest of this year, and perhaps longer, the rate could fall to about two a month. The Florida spaceport last failed to lead the world in launch activity in 2015. Tuesday’s mission also marked the 37th flight for SpaceX’s fleet-leading Falcon 9 first-stage booster, setting a new record. Its pre-sunrise timing let skywatchers along the East Coast see the rocket climb northeast from Cape Canaveral. Dontchev praised the team for making Falcon 9 the most reliable launch vehicle in history and for helping build a low-Earth-orbit constellation connecting millions of people. SpaceX has launched around 260 Starlink missions from Florida. Future Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches there will instead carry customer payloads. The next is scheduled for August 30, when a Falcon Heavy is due to lift NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Launch Complex 39A. A Falcon 9 mission in mid-September is then scheduled to send the next four-person crew to the International Space Station. The company ultimately intends to phase out Falcon 9 for commercial missions in favour of Starship, prompting concern among customers about the availability of reliable launch services after 2028. Starship is designed to carry as many as 60 Starlink Version 3 satellites, which are larger, heavier and more powerful than the Version 2 satellites launched on Falcon 9. SpaceX still says it plans to launch Starship and Super Heavy from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A by the end of the year. The source judges that schedule unlikely because substantial site work remains and there is little sign of imminent plans to move Starship hardware from South Texas to Florida. A Kennedy Space Center debut by mid-2027 appears more likely. SpaceX plans to use Starship Flight 14 at Starbase, Texas, potentially as soon as next month, to launch the first Starlink Version 3 satellites into low-Earth orbit. The change puts added attention on Starship’s readiness and the continuing Vandenberg schedule. For Soomaali audiences and businesses following satellite connectivity where terrestrial links can be difficult, those developments are likely to be watched closely.