Overview
- SpaceX plans a night launch from Vandenberg that will carry 24 Starlink broadband satellites on the Starlink 17-50 mission.
- The rocket will use first stage booster B1097 on its 12th flight and aim to land that stage on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You.
- If the landing succeeds it would mark the droneship's 219th touchdown and the roughly 651st Falcon booster landing overall.
- The Falcon 9 upper stage is scheduled to deploy the satellites about 61.5 minutes after liftoff and live video feeds will stream before launch.
- The flight is tied to SpaceX hitting yearly milestones by boosting the Starlink fleet near 11,000 satellites and moving the company closer to its 100th mission of 2026 while routine Falcon 9 reuse keeps launch costs and cadence high.