🚀 Falcon 9 | 🛰 Starlink Group 15-8
Launch date: June 8, 2025 14:20 UTC
Payload: Starlink Group 15-8
Location: SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
Vehicle: Falcon 9
On June 8, 2025, at 14:20 UTC, SpaceX launched 26 Starlink v2 Mini satellites as Starlink Group 15-8 aboard Falcon 9 from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base. This marked Falcon 9’s 70th flight of 2025 and further expands the Starlink megaconstellation, which is nearing 7,700 operational satellites. Booster B1088 completed its seventh successful flight, having previously supported missions such as NROL-126 and Transporter 12, and landed on the droneship ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ in the Pacific Ocean. Deployment of all satellites into a 70-degree inclined low-Earth orbit was confirmed by SpaceX, as the company continues to target a record 170 orbital launches in 2025.
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SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, USA
Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) is part of the larger Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Originally built as Launch Complex 75-1-2 and used by the U.S. Air Force for Atlas-Agena and Titan rockets in the 1960s and 1970s, it was later refurbished by SpaceX beginning in 2011. SpaceX rebuilt the facility to support Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches aimed at sun-synchronous and polar orbits—trajectories best served from Vandenberg.
The first Falcon 9 launch from SLC-4E took place in September 2013. Since then, it has become SpaceX’s primary West Coast launch site, supporting both government and commercial payloads, including earth observation and reconnaissance satellites. In addition to supporting reusable launch vehicle operations, SLC-4E also hosts infrastructure for rocket landing and recovery, helping to advance SpaceX’s reusability efforts.