Update May 30, 11:40 a.m. EDT (1540 UTC): SpaceX landed its booster on the drone ship.
SpaceX launched its 50th dedicated Starlink mission of 2026 with a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday morning.
The Starlink 17-41 mission will add another 24 broadband internet satellites to the company’s low Earth orbit constellation. It consists of more than 10,000 spacecraft in orbit.
Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 8:25 a.m. PDT (11:25 a.m. EDT / 1525 UTC). The rocket will fly on a south-southwesterly trajectory upon leaving the pad.
SpaceX launched the mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number B1082. This was its 22nd flight after launching missions, like USSF-62, NROL-145, and OneWeb Launch 20.
More than eight minutes after liftoff, B1082 landed on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ This was the 199th landing on this vessel and the 617th booster landing to date for SpaceX.
