During the first quarter of the year, 27 orbital rockets took flight from Florida's Space Coast. That equates to a cadence of 108 launches by year's end — a record-breaking pace that would erase last year's record of 93 annual liftoffs.

In the first of a double-header day, SpaceX launched the Starlink 6-80 mission from Cape Canaveral SLC-40. Launch occurred at 3:52 p.m. on March 31.

SpaceX on Monday launched another batch of satellites from Starlink mission launches from Florida on Monday afternoon, about 5 1/2 hours before another Falcon 9 nearby sent a privately funded crew into space.

Amazon on Wednesday said it plans to launch this month the first 27 satellites for its Project Kuiper internet network, a long-awaited moment for a budding constellation that will pose the biggest challenge yet to Elon Musk's massive Starlink system.

The United Launch Alliance rocket is set to help Amazon take a step toward a satellite internet service that would likely compete with Starlink.