SpaceX launched its next batch of Starlink satellites from California on Friday night, four days later than originally planned. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 8:08 p.m. PDT on July 31 (0308 UTC on August 1), adding another 24 V2 Mini Optimized broadband satellites to the low Earth orbit constellation, which SpaceX now says exceeds 10,800 spacecraft on orbit.
Booster B1081's 26th flight
The Starlink 17-52 mission used Falcon 9 first stage B1081 on its 26th flight, after previously launching 15 Starlink batches and multiple missions for NASA, ESA and the National Reconnaissance Office including Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, EarthCARE, NROL-186, TRACERS, NROL-48 and Italy's COSMO-SkyMED Second Generation FM3. About eight minutes after liftoff B1081 landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean, notching the 214th landing on that vessel and the 643rd orbital booster landing for SpaceX overall.
90 Falcon launches into 2026
Starlink 17-52 was SpaceX's 90th Falcon launch of the year, including one Falcon Heavy, and the 69th batch of Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites deployed to orbit in 2026. It follows the previous night's classified NROL-95 launch for the National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral and comes a week after Starship Flight 13 deployed the first V3 Starlink batch.
Why the delay matters less than the cadence
SpaceX did not disclose why the launch was repeatedly delayed from its original July 27 window, but the mission still cleared July with the year's Falcon rate on track to eclipse 2025. The upper stage deployed the V2 Mini stack about one hour into flight, continuing the pace SpaceX needs to keep filling the V2 Mini Optimized layer while V3 satellites begin to arrive from Starship.
Reporting based on coverage from Spaceflight Now, Space.com and SpaceX's July 31, 2026 mission timeline.