SpaceX launches Starlink satellites from Vandenberg in California

a white and black rocket ignites its engines to lift off from a launch pad under a mostly clear dusk blue sky

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink satellites launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lit up the dusk sky over southern California on Sunday (Sept. 28) as it carried a new stack of 28 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.

The evening launch at 10:04 p.m. EDT (0204 GMT on Sept. 29 or 7:04 p.m. PDT local time) from Vandenberg Space Force Base successfully reached space in just under minutes. The Falcon's upper stage booster was on track to deploy the broadband internet relays (Starlink Group 11-20) about an hour after leaving the ground.

the first stage of a rocket stands on its landing legs, as seen in silhouette atop a droneship stationed in the ocean — The first stage of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands on its landing legs and lit in silhouette atop a droneship on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

Booster 1063 missions

The Falcon's first stage (Booster 1063), meanwhile, descended to a propulsive landing on its four deployed landing legs on "Of Course I Still Love You," a droneship positioned in the Pacific Ocean. This was the 28th flight for this particular stage.

The launch added 28 Starlink satellites to SpaceX's megaconstellation, which now totals more than 8,500 active units.

The flight was SpaceX's 124th Falcon 9 mission this year out of a total 542 launches since 2010.

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Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com, a daily news publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018.

In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History. In 2023, the National Space Club Florida Committee recognized Pearlman with the Kolcum News and Communications Award for excellence in telling the space story along the Space Coast and throughout the world.

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