Update April 29, 11:17 p.m. EDT (0317 UTC): SpaceX landed its booster.
Following a successful Falcon Heavy launch from Florida on Wednesday morning, SpaceX rounded out the day by launching a Falcon 9 rocket from California.
The Starlink 17-36 mission will add another 24 broadband internet satellites to the company’s massive low Earth orbit constellation. This was the 42nd mission sending Starlink satellites into space this year.
Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 7:42:49 pm PDT (10:42:49 pm EDT / 0242:49 UTC). The rocket flew on a south-southwesterly trajectory upon leaving the pad.
SpaceX launched the mission using the Falcon booster with the tail number B1093. This was its 13th flight following Transporter-16, two missions for the Space Development Agency, and 10 previous batches of Starlink satellites.
A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1093 landed on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You’, positioned in the Pacific Ocean. This was the 194th landing on this vessel and the 606th booster landing to date for SpaceX.
