Update 10:15 a.m. EDT: SpaceX put this launch on hold for now. This story will be updated once the launch has been rescheduled.
SpaceX is gearing up for its first Falcon 9 rocket launch from the West Coast in nine days with a mission to deliver 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 is scheduled for 8:43 p.m. PDT (11:43 p.m. EDT / 0343 UTC).
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff.
SpaceX will launch the mission using its Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number B1093. This will be its fifth flight after previously launching four batches of Starlink satellites.
Roughly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1093 will target a landing on the droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ If successful, this would be the 144th landing on this vessel.
If SpaceX is able to launch the KF-02 mission for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband satellite constellation, Saturday morning, the Starlink 17-4 mission will represent the company’s 98th Falcon 9 launch of 2025.
Expanding coverage
SpaceX announced Monday 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.
