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SpaceX launches Starlink satellites from California as Falcon 9 cadence slows
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- DeepHorus
SpaceX launched 27 Starlink broadband satellites from California on Oct. 23, sending the Group 15-15 batch aloft on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Liftoff from Pad 4E came at 6:48 p.m. EDT (2248 GMT). The flight adds to a constellation exceeding 11,000 active spacecraft.
About 2.5 minutes into flight, booster B1063 shut down its engines and separated, allowing the second stage to continue toward low Earth orbit. The payload fairing was jettisoned just before T+3 minutes. B1063 then reoriented for descent.
The booster began its landing burn just past the eight-minute mark and touched down about 20 seconds later on SpaceX's droneship "Of Course I Still Love You." It marked the 36th launch and landing for B1063, which flew NASA's DART asteroid mission in November 2021. The upper stage, meanwhile, was to coast roughly 45 minutes before a final insertion burn. Deployment of the 27 satellites was scheduled 62 minutes after launch.
The launch was Falcon 9's 116th flight of 2026, roughly three-quarters of them Starlink. Cadence has nonetheless slowed: at peak, Starlink missions flew every two to three days, while the previous one lifted off 11 days earlier. The slower rate should keep 2025, which logged 165 launches, as Falcon 9's busiest year, with just under 150 projected for 2026.
SpaceX is shifting focus to Starship, built for full reusability and fitted with a bay for upgraded Version 3 Starlink satellites too large for Falcon 9. Once operational flights begin, the company plans to phase out Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy almost entirely. The 100th Falcon 9 flight of 2026, from Cape Canaveral, was confirmed as the final Falcon 9 Starlink mission from Florida's Space Coast.
Similar shifts may soon reach the West Coast, though Falcon 9 remains the primary route for expanding the constellation.
