SpaceX launches 60th mission of the year from California

a black and white rocket launches into a dark night sky

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 27 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Dec. 2, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX has now launched 60 missions from California this year.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Tuesday (Dec. 2) from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Golden State's central coast at 12:28 a.m. EST (0528 GMT; 9:28 p.m. local California time on Dec. 1).

a rocket rests on the deck of a ship at night — The Falcon 9's first stage rests on the deck of a drone ship shortly its launch on Dec. 2, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

The rocket's first stage came back to Earth as planned, touching down on the SpaceX droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. It was the 20th mission for this particular booster, which is designated B1081.

The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, deployed the 27 Starlink satellites about 62 minutes after launch.

Previous Booster 1081 missions

Tuesday's liftoff was SpaceX's 60th of the year from Vandenberg, according to SpaceflightNow. That's impressive, but the company's East Coast operations are even more prolific: Ninety-four Falcon 9 missions have lifted off so far in 2025 from Florida's Space Coast. (SpaceX flies out of pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, which are next door to each other).

The company has also launched five suborbital test flights of its Starship megarocket so far this year. All of these missions have lifted off from Starbase, the company's site in South Texas.

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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