SpaceX sent 27 of its Starlink internet satellites toward low Earth orbit from California this evening (April 3).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink craft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base today at 9:02 p.m. EDT (6:02 p.m. local California time; 0102 GMT on April 4).
A little over eight minutes later, the rocket’s first stage touched down on the SpaceX drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You,” which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean. It was the fifth launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a company mission description.
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s upper stage will deploy the Starlink satellites about an hour after liftoff.
Tonight’s launch followed up a SpaceX doubleheader on Monday (March 31), when the company lofted another Starlink batch as well as the Fram2 private astronaut mission, the first-ever human spaceflight to orbit over Earth’s poles.
Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky
SpaceX has now launched 38 Falcon 9 missions so far in 2025, about two-thirds of which have been devoted to building out the Starlink megaconstellation.
Starlink is by far the largest satellite network ever assembled. It currently consists of more than 7,100 operational spacecraft, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.