SpaceX launched 24 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on April 29, sending a Falcon 9 rocket on a south-southwesterly path after liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East. The spacex starlink vandenberg launch, called Starlink 17-36, lifted off at 7:42:49 p.m. PDT and added another batch of broadband internet satellites to the company’s low Earth orbit constellation.
The flight was SpaceX’s 42nd Starlink mission of the year. It also kept a familiar booster moving through the company’s reuse cycle: B1093 flew for the 13th time, after earlier missions including Transporter-16, two flights for the Space Development Agency and 10 previous Starlink batches.
A little more than eight minutes after leaving the pad, B1093 landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. That touchdown was the 194th landing on the vessel and the 606th booster landing SpaceX has logged to date, another marker of how routine a once high-risk maneuver has become for the company.
The April 29 launch was part of SpaceX’s steady push to build out Starlink in low Earth orbit, and the pace is not easing. With 42 Starlink missions already launched this year, the company is still filling out a constellation meant to keep growing satellite by satellite, launch by launch.
