SpaceX launches 26 Starlink satellites to orbit from California

SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit from California on Monday night (May 12), on the first leg of a spaceflight doubleheader.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 26 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on California’s central coast Monday at 9:15 p.m. EDT (6:15 p.m. local California time; 0115 GMT on May 13).

The rocket’s first stage came back to Earth for a landing about 8 minutes later as planned, touching down on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Pacific Ocean.

It was the sixth flight for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.

The Falcon 9’s upper stage continued carrying the 26 Starlink satellites toward low Earth orbit (LEO), where they were deployed on schedule about 65 minutes after launch.

Monday night’s launch was the 56th Falcon 9 mission of 2025. Thirty-nine of those flights have been devoted to building the Starlink megaconstellation, by far the largest spacecraft network ever assembled.

Those launch numbers changed again just a few hours after this mission went in the books: SpaceX launched another Starlink mission, this one from Florida’s Space Coast, early Tuesday morning (May 13).