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Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) launched a fresh batch of its Starlink satellites from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California earlier today. The mission was SpaceX's 26th launch for the year and the 225th overall. It comes as the firm expands its presence in California as part of an aggressive plan to conduct at least 100 missions this year. The launch is also SpaceX's first after its Starship test flight earlier this month, which saw the world's largest rocket successfully take off from Texas and dig a crater at the launch pad.

SpaceX Continues To Launch Starlink Satellites For Rapidly Building Satellite Constellation

The launch occurred amidst a dense fog in Vandenberg, which is often the case at the West Coast site. However, the fog also provided stunning views of the Falcon 9 rising from the mist in what is business as usual for SpaceX, which has launched more missions than any other entity - government or private - this year. The rocket lifted off at 6:46 am local time and crossed the speed of sound a minute later.

SpaceX's ground tracking camera provided stunning and crisp views of the Falcon 9 racing to the skies to fly higher than Starship ever has. A minute after it had broken the sound barrier, the rocket had accelerated to twice that speed. The Falcon 9 visuals showed a fiery red glow of the nine Merlin 1D engines, leaving a fire trail in their wake as the first stage headed towards main engine cutoff.

Keeping up with SpaceX's tradition of heavy reusability, the Falcon 9 booster for today's mission was flying for its 13th time - which has also become business as usual for SpaceX. The Falcon 9 is the world's only reusable medium-lift rocket, and it has enabled SpaceX to disrupt the rocket launch market and eat market share away from traditional rivals such as Arianespace.

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After the first and second stages successfully separated, Falcon 9 started to return to Earth. However, today's landing came with a small surprise (some would say a mini heart attack) as the kerosene being vented by the booster on SpaceX's drone ship caught fire from the residual flame from its engines. This is a rare occurrence; however, Falcon 9 often emits flames from its engines after landing.

The launch from Vandenberg is also the first after SpaceX secured the Space Force's permission to launch its Falcon rockets from the Space Launch Complex 6 in Vandenberg. This pad was previously used by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) for its Delta rocket family, and today's launch was from Launch Complex 4 East.

Today is a busy day for SpaceX as it will launch its largest operational rocket, the Falcon Heavy, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center later. The Falcon 9 is one of the most reliable rockets in the world, and it has seen rare accidents as SpaceX obsessively evaluates the rockets during fixed stages in their life cycle.