Update Aug. 8, 2:31 p.m. EDT (1831 UTC): SpaceX confirms deployment of the 24 satellites.
SpaceX’s West Coast surge in Starlink launches continued Saturday with another batch of satellites for its internet service going into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
Liftoff of the Starlink 17-38 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California happened at 9:35 a.m. PDT (12:35 p.m. EDT / 1635 UTC). It was 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.
SpaceX assigned first stage booster B1093 to this mission. It joined the Falcon 9 fleet in April 2025 and had flown 15 previous missions: SDA-T1TL-B and SDA-T1TL-C for the Space Development Agency, the Transporter-16 rideshare mission and 12 Starlink deliveries.
The booster took a south-south-westerly trajectory after departing Space Launch Complex 4E. It landed 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 were deployed just over an hour into flight. It was the 71st operational Starlink delivery mission of the year.
