The skies across the greater Los Angeles area were lit up with a stunning show that is becoming increasingly regular over the last several years: a rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
On Monday, around 7:50 p.m., a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from the Santa Barbara County military base carrying the latest round of Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit.
According to SpaceX, the Falcon 9 launched with 25 Starlink v2 mini-satellites from the Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg.
Vandenberg Space Force Base is located along the coast of Santa Barbara County, about 25 minutes southwest of Santa Maria.
It was the second attempted launch from Vandenberg in as many days. A previous launch was scrubbed at the last minute due to “upper-level winds,” SpaceX officials said on X, formerly Twitter.
Tuesday’s launch seemingly went off without a hitch, and the rocket’s first-stage booster landed successfully on the “Of Course I Still Love You” drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.
How many SpaceX launches have there been in Southern California?
According to the NextSpaceFlight iOS app, it was the 625th Falcon 9 mission in total, and the 42nd Falcon 9 mission of 2026.
SpaceX itself has completed 652 missions, primarily Falcon 9 launches. Tuesday’s launch was the company’s 78th oribtal launch attempt of the year.
The estimated cost of the two-stage rocket is around $74 million.
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SpaceX wasn’t the only one planning on launching rockets into orbit this week. Less than nine hours after the successful Falcon 9 launch, military contractor Northrop Grumman was slated to launch a Minotaur IV rocket on behalf of the United States Department of Defense. The payload for that launch is described as “research and technology demonstration.”
That launch was tentatively scheduled to take place at 4:30 a.m. Pacific Time, weather permitting.
Another Starlink Falcon 9 launch is scheduled for Friday at 7:39 p.m. and should be visible across Southern California if conditions are favorable.
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