SpaceX successfully launched 24 satellites for its Starlink internet service from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday evening. The mission, known as Starlink 17-45, took off at 8:30 p.m. PDT (11:30 p.m. EDT / 0330 UTC).
The satellites were placed into orbit using the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage B1081, which has flown 25 times. The booster landed on the drone ship ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ approximately 8.5 minutes after liftoff, and the satellites were deployed an hour later.
In 2026, California has become a key location for SpaceX, with the company concentrating more on Starship operations at Cape Canaveral, Florida. This mission marks the seventh of eight planned launches from Vandenberg this June, compared to six scheduled from Florida.
While SpaceX operates two launch pads at Cape Canaveral, it is currently using only one, Space Launch Complex 40, for the Falcon 9. The Falcon Heavy missions are being launched from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, allowing for construction of a new East Coast Starship facility to continue with fewer delays. Additionally, SpaceX announced in April that it would repurpose one of its two Falcon 9 droneships for transporting Starship components.
If the schedule remains on track, SpaceX will complete 40 launches from Vandenberg and 37 from Cape Canaveral in the first half of 2026. The recent launch of the Starlink 17-28 mission on June 21 established a rapid turnaround for the launch pad, just 56 hours after the previous flight.
