The busy year for SpaceX continued overnight with the West Coast liftoff of the 160th Falcon 9 rocket mission of 2025.
The rocket blasted off 3:40 a.m. Wednesday from Space Launch Complex-4 on south Vandenberg Space Force Base, followed by the first-stage booster’s landing on a droneship in the Pacific Ocean.
An hour after departure the rocket deployed the 27 Starlink satellites.
This marked the fourth Falcon launch of December at Vandenberg and the 68th liftoff overall from the base during 2025. Most of the missions involved SpaceX rockets with six being other rockets and missiles.
A Falcon 9 rocket carries a stack of Starlink satellites into orbit early Wednesday morning from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Credit: SpaceX photo
The early Wednesday launch at Vandenberg became the 160th Falcon liftoff of the year including missions from both the West and East coasts.
The next Falcon rocket launch from Vandenberg will be another middle-of-the-night mission. The launch of the Starlink satellites is expected to occur between 9:20 p.m. Saturday and 1:20 a.m. Sunday, according to SpaceX.
