{"id":130259,"date":"2026-01-12T14:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/130259\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T14:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:30:11","slug":"spacex-rocket-launch-in-california-to-deploy-government-satellite-heres-when","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/130259\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX rocket launch in California to deploy government satellite. Here’s when"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liftoff in 3 … 2 … 1!<\/p>\n

One rocket launch is planned in the week ahead from California<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And no surprise, it’ll be a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket due to get off the ground<\/a> from the Vandenberg Space Force Base<\/a>. But the commercial spaceflight company has yet to launch a mission in 2026 from the West Coast to deploy its commercial Starlink Internet satellites<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, SpaceX is due to help deliver to low-Earth orbit some government satellites.<\/p>\n

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Californians<\/a> \u2013 and even Arizonans<\/a> \u2013 making their plans to watch any launches<\/a> should keep in mind that lots can change between now and when each rocket is expected to lift off, as delays in spaceflight are common. Be sure to\u00a0visit VC Star for the latest mission updates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, here’s your weekly look at the upcoming launch schedule<\/a> at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County.<\/p>\n

California rocket launches: Vandenberg ends 2025 with record number of rocket launches. What’s next?<\/a><\/p>\n

Friday, Jan. 16: NROL-15<\/p>\n

Rocket: Falcon 9, a 230-foot, two-stage rocket<\/p>\n

Launch window: 8:18 to 8:53 p.m. PT Friday, Jan. 16, 2026<\/p>\n

Rocket launch location: Space Launch Complex 4E from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California<\/p>\n

Booster landing: Return to base at Landing Zone 4<\/p>\n

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Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: California rocket launch schedule. What time is next SpaceX mission?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liftoff in 3 … 2 … 1! One rocket launch is planned in the week ahead from California.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,66998,44696,66997,66999,44695],"class_list":["post-130259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-government-satellites","tag-rocket-launch","tag-rocket-launches","tag-spacex-falcon-9","tag-vandenberg-space-force-base"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}