Update Aug. 14, 1:27 p.m. EDT: SpaceX pushed back the T-0 liftoff time.
After a two-week launch hiatus from California, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket against a foggy backdrop on Wednesday night, delivering 24 optimized Starlink V2 Mini satellites into a polar, low Earth orbit.
Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California was scheduled for August 9 local time, but was delayed without explanation to August 11 and then the 12th. The launch now appears to have slipped another day to Wednesday, August 13, local time, at the earliest.
SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at 10:05 p.m. PDT (1:05 a.m. EDT / 0505 UTC).
SpaceX launched the mission using its Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number B1093. This was its fifth flight after previously launching four batches of Starlink satellites.
Roughly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1093 landed on the droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ This was the 144th landing on this vessel.
Starlink coverage expanded
SpaceX announced Monday, August 4, that its Starlink service is now available in Somalia and Israel. Other countries and regions in the Middle East, like Gaza, the West Bank, and Iraq are listed on SpaceX’s Starlink coverage map with the caveat “service date is unknown at this time.
Kuwait shows coverage beginning sometime in 2025. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates are all designated as “pending regulatory approval.” SpaceX founder Elon Musk visited Saudi Arabia alongside President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials in May 2025 as part of what was billed as the US-Saudi Investment Forum.
In a readout from that trip, the White House stated that the two countries signed a $142 billion military sale, which the administration called “the largest defense sales agreement in history.” That included broad investment in “air force advancement and space capabilities.”
At the time, CNBC reported that Musk inked a deal with Saudi Arabia to allow Starlink use in maritime and aviation applications. He didn’t specify how much the deal was worth.
