{"id":563693,"date":"2026-08-09T11:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T11:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/563693\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T11:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T11:08:08","slug":"50th-vandenberg-launch-as-east-coast-slows-x-report-9-aug-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/563693\/","title":{"rendered":"50th Vandenberg Launch as East Coast Slows, X Report 9 Aug 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Latest Developments<\/p>\n

SpaceX flew its 71st operational Starlink delivery of 2026 on August 8, sending 24 satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The Starlink 17-38 mission was also the company\u2019s 50th West Coast launch this year, as East Coast cadence has slowed while Starship preparations ramp up at Boca Chica. The constellation now stands at 12,692 launched, 10,939 in orbit, and 10,923 working.<\/p>\n

Space Safety<\/p>\n

Eight Starlink satellites appear in the current SOCRATES high-probability conjunction list, though none cross the high-risk threshold. Five Starlink vehicles carry active reentry predictions from 18th Space Defense Squadron tracking.<\/p>\n

Risk
\nStarlink Sat
\nOther Object
\nStatus
\nMin Range (km)
\nRel Speed (km\/s)
\nMax Prob
\nTime of Closest Approach<\/p>\n

MODERATE
\nSTARLINK-36791<\/a>
\nELECTRON KICK STAGE R\/B
\nNon-operational
\n0.018
\n7.722
\n0.2399
\nAug 9, 16:00 UTC<\/p>\n

MODERATE
\nSTARLINK-5547<\/a>
\nSTARLINK-36554
\nPartially Operational
\n0.036
\n1.293
\n0.2244
\nAug 11, 07:33 UTC<\/p>\n

MODERATE
\nSTARLINK-5121<\/a>
\nOBJECT B
\nOperational
\n0.023
\n5.913
\n0.1802
\nAug 9, 21:59 UTC<\/p>\n

MODERATE
\nSTARLINK-36544<\/a>
\nSIMSAT 2
\nUnknown
\n0.027
\n9.148
\n0.1267
\nAug 9, 11:47 UTC<\/p>\n

MODERATE
\nSTARLINK-4709<\/a>
\nLIZZIESAT-2 (LS-2)
\nOperational
\n0.029
\n4.832
\n0.12
\nAug 13, 14:43 UTC<\/p>\n

LOW
\nSTARLINK-37746<\/a>
\nJILIN-1 GAOFEN 03D47
\nOperational
\n0.024
\n14.786
\n0.09603
\nAug 13, 19:01 UTC<\/p>\n

LOW
\nSTARLINK-31133<\/a>
\nNASBSAT-1
\nOperational
\n0.035
\n7.375
\n0.08521
\nAug 11, 01:27 UTC<\/p>\n

LOW
\nSTARLINK-37168<\/a>
\nMISR-C-2
\nOperational
\n0.038
\n8.954
\n0.06904
\nAug 11, 17:42 UTC<\/p>\n

Satellite
\nNORAD ID
\nPredicted Decay
\nWindow (min)
\nInclination
\nLat
\nLon<\/p>\n

STARLINK-2342<\/a>
\n47883
\nAug 9, 09:39 UTC
\n180
\n53.1\u00b0
\n-52.9\u00b0
\n34.8\u00b0<\/p>\n

STARLINK-2019<\/a>
\n47641
\nAug 9, 21:26 UTC
\n360
\n53\u00b0
\n31.1\u00b0
\n3.5\u00b0<\/p>\n

STARLINK-2163<\/a>
\n47749
\nAug 10, 14:05 UTC
\n600
\n53.1\u00b0
\n8.3\u00b0
\n352.7\u00b0<\/p>\n

STARLINK-1646<\/a>
\n46351
\nAug 11, 03:51 UTC
\n720
\n53\u00b0
\n50.1\u00b0
\n22.8\u00b0<\/p>\n

STARLINK-1873<\/a>
\n47158
\nAug 12, 23:39 UTC
\n1140
\n53\u00b0
\n50.4\u00b0
\n5.9\u00b0<\/p>\n

Detailed Coverage
\nFalcon 9 Hits 50th Vandenberg Launch of the Year With Starlink 17-38<\/p>\n

SpaceX launched 24 Starlink satellites from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base on August 8 at 9:35 a.m. PDT (1635 UTC). Booster B1093, now on its 16th flight, landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You roughly eight minutes after liftoff. B1093 entered the fleet in April 2025 and has carried a mix of payloads including two SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer missions, the Transporter-16 rideshare, and 12 prior Starlink batches.<\/p>\n

The mission was SpaceX\u2019s 50th launch from the West Coast this year. Vandenberg\u2019s tempo has picked up as Cape Canaveral\u2019s rate has dipped, a shift driven by Starship infrastructure work on the East Coast. As we noted in our earlier coverage<\/a>, this was the 71st operational Starlink delivery mission of 2026.<\/p>\n

Read the full story: SpaceflightNow<\/a><\/p>\n

Constellation Status<\/p>\n

SpaceX added 24 satellites to the constellation through Starlink Group 17-38, bringing the total launched count to 12,692. Of those, 10,923 are currently working and 10,939 remain in orbit, with five more having decayed since the last update (1,753 total). The gap between in-orbit and working counts holds steady at 16, a small number of recently deployed units still raising orbit or undergoing checkout.<\/p>\n

Total Launched: 12692
\nTotal On Orbit: 10939
\nTotal Working: 10923<\/p>\n

Track Starlink satellites in real-time: Track Starlink<\/a><\/p>\n

Wondering about the totals? See how many Starlink satellites are in orbit<\/a>, updated daily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Latest Developments SpaceX flew its 71st operational Starlink delivery of 2026 on August 8, sending 24 satellites into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-563693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}