SpaceX launches 27 Starlink satellites to orbit from California (photos)

a black and white rocket launches into a darkening evening sky — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 27 Starlink satellites to orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sept. 19, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX launched yet another batch of its Starlink broadband satellites to orbit today (Sept. 19).

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 27 Starlink craft lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base today at 9:47 p.m. EDT (6:47 p.m. local time; 0147 GMT on Sept. 20).

The rocket's first stage returned to Earth about 8.5 minutes later, touching down in the Pacific Ocean atop the SpaceX drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You." It was the 17th flight for this particular booster, which is designated 1093.

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A stack of several dozen flat satellites arrayed on the upper stage of a rocket with earth in the background — The upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, before it deployed its payload of 27 Starlink satellites into orbit on Sept. 19, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)

The Falcon 9's upper stage hauled the 27 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, deploying them as planned about 62 minutes after launch.

There were already a lot of them up there: The ever-growing Starlink megaconstellation currently consists of more than 11,100 active spacecraft, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

Previous Booster 1093 launches

SDA-T1TL-B | SDA-T1TL-C | Transporter-16 | 13 Starlink missions

Saturday's launch was the 107th Falcon 9 mission of 2026, and the 81st of the year dedicated to building out the Starlink network.

Those numbers are impressive, but they don't quite match SpaceX's record-breaking 2025 cadence: Last year, the Falcon 9 flew 165 times, and 122 of those were Starlink missions. (If SpaceX maintains its current rates this year, 2026 will see a total of 149 Falcon 9 launches, 113 of which are Starlink flights.)

Michael Wall is the Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers human and robotic spaceflight, military space, and exoplanets, 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.