SpaceX’s West Coast surge in Starlink launches continues Saturday with another batch of satellites for its internet service set to go into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
Liftoff of the Starlink 17-38 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California is scheduled for 9:35 a.m. PDT (12:35 p.m. EDT / 1635 UTC). It will be SpaceX’s 50th launch from the West Coast this year as it ramps up launches there while the flight rate from the East Coast has fallen as the company focuses on ramping up Starship preparations.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage starting about 30 minutes prior to launch.
SpaceX has assigned first stage booster B1093 to this mission. It joined the Falcon 9 fleet in April 2025 and has flown 16 missions: SDA-T1TL-B and SDA-T1TL-C for the Space Development Agency, the Transporter-16 rideshare mission and 12 previous Starlink deliveries.
The booster will take a south-south-westerly trajectory after departing Space Launch Complex 4E. It will land on the drone ship ‘Of Course I Still Love you’ in Pacific Ocean about eight minutes, 19 seconds after liftoff.
The 24 Starlink satellites stacked atop the second stage of the Falcon 9 will be deployed just over an hour into flight. It will be the
