{"id":381241,"date":"2026-01-01T07:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T07:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/381241\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T07:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T07:25:07","slug":"spacex-targets-friday-for-first-launch-of-2026-from-vandenberg-space-force-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/381241\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX targets Friday for first launch of 2026 from Vandenberg Space Force Base"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After multiple postponements, SpaceX has set a new date for its mission for the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defense from Vandenberg Space Force Base.<\/p>\n<p>Friday\u2019s planned Falcon 9 liftoff at 6:09 p.m. will mark the first launch of 2026 from the West Coast base.<\/p>\n<p>The COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation\u00a0mission was first set to launch Saturday. Liftoff was then moved to Sunday before being postponed again to allow more time for ground system checkouts, SpaceX reported.<\/p>\n<p>The satellite will be used as a tool to observe Earth for both civilian and military purposes. <\/p>\n<p>Once liftoff happens, the rocket\u2019s first stage is expected to land back on Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg, creating a sonic boom that people in surrounding communities may hear and marking the 21st time the first-stage booster has been used.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spacex.com\/launches\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">live webcast of the launch<\/a>\u00a0will begin about 15 minutes before liftoff.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX launches accounted for nearly 85% of the launches from Vandenberg in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The aerospace company reports it completed a total of 165 Falcon launches and five Starship test flights this year in the United States. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team for completing 165 Falcon launches and five Starship flight tests this year, all continuing to help pave the way to making life multiplanetary! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tbfFTmFWf0\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/tbfFTmFWf0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SpaceX (@SpaceX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SpaceX\/status\/2006418448524464253?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December 31, 2025<\/a> <\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After multiple postponements, SpaceX has set a new date for its mission for the Italian Space Agency and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-381241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}