SpaceX Targets Tuesday Afternoon for Starlink 15-15 Launch From Vandenberg
The four-hour window opens at 3:14 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at Space Launch Complex 4 East. The Falcon 9 will carry 27 Starlink satellites, and its booster will fly for the 36th time.
SpaceX is targeting Tuesday, Oct. 20, for the next Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County. The Starlink Group 15-15 mission is scheduled to lift off from Space Launch Complex 4 East during a window that opens at 3:14 p.m. PDT and runs to 7:14 p.m., according to the launch schedule and the mission description SpaceX published for the flight.
The rocket will carry 27 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. The launch schedule lists deployment of the satellite stack at about one hour and two minutes after liftoff, following a second burn of the upper stage engine.
The first stage booster, numbered B1063, will be flying its 36th mission, SpaceX says. Its earlier flights include the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich ocean satellite, NASA's DART asteroid mission, Transporter-7, Iridium OneWeb, SDA-0B, NROL-113, NROL-167, NROL-149 and NAOS, along with 26 previous Starlink flights. After stage separation, the booster is set to land on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean.
As with other Vandenberg Starlink flights, SpaceX notes that residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties may hear one or more sonic booms during the launch, depending on weather and other conditions. A live webcast of the mission will begin about 10 minutes before liftoff, SpaceX says.
The launch schedule's forecast for the window calls for few clouds over the base, a temperature near 64 degrees and winds near 11 miles per hour, with no precipitation expected. Launch times remain subject to change for weather, technical readiness and range availability.
Tuesday's flight follows the Starlink 15-25 mission, which lifted off from the same pad at 5:28 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 12, with another 27 satellites. The back-to-back cadence keeps Vandenberg on a roughly weekly rhythm of Starlink departures this month.
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