SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 on the KF-02 mission at 8:35 a.m. Eastern time Monday, sending 24 of Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40. The flight, cleared after four weather-related scrubs since Aug. 8, brings Kuiper’s fledgling constellation to 102 satellites and marked SpaceX’s 100th orbital mission of 2025, the company’s 97th Falcon 9 launch this year. Amazon has booked more than 80 launches to meet U.S. Federal Communications Commission milestones that require roughly 1,600 Kuiper spacecraft to be operating by July 2026 and the full 3,236-satellite network by 2029. Monday’s launch was Amazon’s second ride with SpaceX; most future Kuiper flights are contracted with United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin and Arianespace. The Cape’s manifest remains busy: ULA plans to fly its Vulcan VC4S rocket Tuesday night on the USSF-106 mission, the vehicle’s first national-security assignment. Liftoff is targeted for 8:56 p.m. Eastern, near the end of a one-hour window, with an 80 % chance of favorable weather. The four-booster Vulcan will haul the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Navigation Technology Satellite-3—an experimental platform aimed at next-generation GPS capabilities—alongside a classified Space Force payload directly to geosynchronous orbit. The flight also ends the Pentagon’s reliance on Russian-built engines, introducing two U.S.-made Blue Origin BE-4 main engines to the national-security launch fleet.