SpaceX launches 27 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg on Falcon 9

SpaceX sent 27 more Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 6:28:17 p.m. PDT on July 13, extending a launch rhythm that now looks less like isolated missions than a standing utility. The company said its Starlink constellation had more than 10,700 spacecraft in orbit as the Falcon 9 rose from Space Launch Complex 4 East, another increment in a network built to widen broadband coverage and deepen SpaceX’s hold on global communications traffic.

The rocket’s first stage, booster B1093, was flying for the 15th time. It had already logged missions on Transporter-16, two Space Development Agency flights and 11 previous Starlink launches, a reuse pattern that has become central to SpaceX’s economics and launch cadence. About eight minutes after liftoff, the booster landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean, marking the vessel’s 210th landing and SpaceX’s 637th booster landing overall.

The mission fit into a busier-than-ever Vandenberg schedule. A June 28 account from The Sheffield Press said SpaceX had completed 75 Falcon 9 launches in the first half of 2026, with 59 of them carrying Starlink payloads, and noted that Jonathan McDowell had counted more than 10,700 satellites in orbit. That scale matters well beyond the launch site: each additional batch thickens the Starlink shell over Earth, boosting service density for customers while adding to concerns over orbital congestion as private operators crowd the same altitude band.

The launch also carried local consequences on the California coast, where SpaceX warned that sonic booms could be heard in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties depending on weather and atmospheric conditions. Those warnings come against a legal backdrop that has shifted in SpaceX’s favor. In April, SpaceX and the California Coastal Commission settled a lawsuit tied to launch cadence regulation at Vandenberg. The agreement required the commission to apologize for politically biased statements made during an October 10, 2024 hearing, barred it from considering the perceived political beliefs, political speech or labor practices of SpaceX or its officers in related regulatory actions, and said the agency would not require a coastal development permit for Falcon rocket activity at Space Launch Complex 4 and Space Launch Complex 6.