{"id":508877,"date":"2026-03-07T08:21:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T08:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/508877\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T08:21:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T08:21:19","slug":"spacex-plans-mid-afternoon-falcon-9-rocket-launch-from-vandenberg-sfb-spaceflight-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/508877\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX plans mid-afternoon Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg SFB \u2013 Spaceflight Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-65127\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240118-Starlink-File-Photo-Feature-Image.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\"  \/>File: A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch a Starlink mission. Image: SpaceX<\/p>\n<p>Update March 6, 12:50 p.m. EST (1550 UTC): SpaceX pushed back the T-0.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX is preparing for a predawn launch on Saturday, March 7, from Vandenberg Space Force Base.<\/p>\n<p>The Starlink 17-18 mission will add 25 more broadband internet satellites to the company\u2019s megaconstellation of more than 9,900 spacecraft in low Earth orbit.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East is scheduled at 6:33:30 a.m. PST (9:33:30 a.m. EST \/ 1433:30 UTC). The rocket will fly on a southerly trajectory upon leaving the launch pad.<\/p>\n<p>Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX will launch the Starlink 17-18 mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number B1097. This will be its seventh flight, following the launches of Twilight, Sentinel-6B and four batches of Starlink satellites.<\/p>\n<p>A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1097 will target a landing on the drone ship, \u2018Of Course I Still Love You,\u2019 positioned in the Pacific Ocean. If successful, this will be the 182nd landing for this vessel and the 582nd booster landing to date for SpaceX.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"File: A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch a Starlink mission. Image: SpaceX Update March 6, 12:50&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-508877","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\/508877","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=508877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}