SpaceX’s ‘Panda’ Rocket Lights Up the Dusk Sky, Delivering 26 New Starlink Satellites! 🚀

On the evening of June 16, a Falcon 9 (still "fresh out of the box" on just its third flight) blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, hauling 26 Starlink satellites—because Elon Musk believes more is always more when it comes to space internet.

Nerdy Flight Details:

Liftoff: 8:36 PM local time, turning the night sky into an impromptu light show.

Destination: Low Earth Orbit, reached in just 8.5 minutes (almost faster than pizza delivery).

Mission Accomplished: The satellites (Group 15-9) were deployed after a second-stage burnabout an hour into the mission.

And the Booster? Oh, it did its job and stuck the landing like a graceful cat on the droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" (yes, SpaceX names its droneships after sci-fi quotes). This first stage, B1093, is already a veteran—three flights, all for Starlink.

Fun Fact: Meanwhile, over in Florida, another Falcon 9 was busy completing the first-gen "Direct-to-Cell" satellites—AKA "how to get 4G in the middle of nowhere, thanks to space." But the California batch? They’re reinforcements for the space broadband army, now over 7,760 active satellites strong.

Bottom Line: SpaceX never stops, and Earth is getting more connected—and more lit up by rockets. 🌎

(Image credit: SpaceX, because they take stunning photos while conquering space.