Today's Starlink launch — the 94th Falcon 9 mission of the year already — was supposed to be the second half of a spaceflight doubleheader. SpaceX tried to launch the Crew-11 astronaut mission to the International Space Station for NASA today but scrubbed the attempt with about a minute left on the countdown clock due to bad weather.

The launch takes place on a milestone date, marking 20 years since the STS-114 space shuttle mission took off from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39B. The launch of Discovery on the STS-114 mission on July 26, 2005, marked the return to flight for the space shuttle after the Columbia tragedy investigation.