A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at about 12:25 a.m. PT on Tuesday, October 27, carrying 27 Starlink satellites for the Starlink Group 15-16 mission. It was the 72nd launch from Vandenberg in 2026, topping the 71 launches the base logged in all of 2025, according to Space Force officials quoted by the USA TODAY Network.
The mission
- The first stage, booster B1082, was flying for the 26th time. Its earlier missions include USSF-62, OneWeb Launch 20, NROL-145 and Transporter-18, plus 21 earlier Starlink flights.
- About eight minutes after liftoff it landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific.
- The upper stage made a short second burn about 53 minutes into flight, and the satellites deployed roughly an hour after launch.
Why it matters
“Today’s historic 72nd launch does more than break a 50-year record,” said Col. James Horne III, commander of Space Launch Delta 30, which runs the base. “It highlights Vandenberg’s position as the busiest spaceport in the world.” California matched last year’s total just four days earlier with a Starlink launch on October 23.
Space.com counts this as the 117th Falcon 9 launch of 2026, with roughly three-quarters of them dedicated to Starlink. SpaceX’s schedule shows more West Coast flights coming soon, including another Starlink mission and the USSF-432 national security launch, so the record will keep climbing through the end of the year.
Sources: SpaceX mission page, USA TODAY Network via AOL and Space.com.