SpaceX landed the returning rocket on a ship at sea after launching 21 Starlink broadband satellites from Florida’s Space Coast early Monday morning (Dec. 23).

At 12:35 a.m. EDT (05:35 GMT), a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft—13 of which can beam service directly to cellphones—left NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida today.

About eight minutes after launch, the first stage of the Falcon 9 returned to Earth as scheduled, landing on the SpaceX droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. “Just Read the Instructions.”

According to a SpaceX mission description, it was the booster’s fifteenth liftoff and landing. Starlink missions have accounted for eight of those flights.

About 65 minutes after launch, the top stage of the Falcon 9 continued to transport the 21 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit for deployment.

Starlink launched Monday morning, marking the 129th Falcon 9 mission of 2024. The development of the Starlink broadband megaconstellation, which currently has over 6,800 operational satellites, has taken up over two-thirds of those flights.