West Coast SpaceX Falcon 9 mission launches 25 Starlink satellites

A Falcon 9 rocket stands poised to launch from the Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. File Photo: SpaceX

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Tuesday night. The rocket carryied another 25 satellites for its Starlink internet service.

Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 9:29:49 p.m. PDT (12:29:49 a.m. EDT / 04:29:49 UTC). The Falcon 9 departed from the central California coast on a southerly trajectory, targeting an orbit of 258 x 246 km, with a 97-degree inclination.

The Starlink 17-27 mission was SpaceX’s 46th Falcon 9 launch of the year and used a first-stage booster making its 21st flight. Booster B1082 entered the SpaceX fleet in January 2024 and has already launched 17 previous Starlink delivery missions. It also flew the USSF-62, OneWeb Launch 20, and NROL-145 missions.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage landedon the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ positioned in the Pacific Ocean. The 25 Starlink V2 Mini satellites stacked atop the second stage deployed about an hour into flight.