Vandenberg Ignites: Falcon 9 Sends 25 Starlink Satellites Up in May

SLC-4E at Vandenberg SFB Roars Wide Awake

Dark comes early on the coast. Flames carve into fog. The Falcon 9 Block 5 Starlink Group 17-29 launch May 2026 slips past rumor and into clock time—T-0 locked, pad cleared, 25 satellites stacked and twitching. Concrete still warm from last night’s static fire. No drama. Just intent.

SpaceX has turned this slope into a machine. SLC-4E does not apologize for polar angles. It throws mass over the shoulder of the planet and keeps the ledger clean. Six hundred fifty-four successful launches taught them how to listen to metal before it screams.

Block 5 Knows How to Carry Its Weight

Falcon cores now fly tired and come back sharper. Titanium grid fins. Denser fuel lines. Fewer parts begging to fail. They loft Starlink sats like grocery runs—reliable, boring, vital. Low Earth orbit fills with chatter beams instead of noise. Latency dies. Corners of the map get reply.

Hawthorne built this bird to punish gravity without fanfare. The family tree is Falcon, the attitude is thrift, and the result is a stack of spacecraft that turn night into a net. No white papers. Just orbits that hold.

Starlink Grows Teeth While the Coast Sleeps

Twenty-five birds drop into lanes meant to hum, not hover. SpaceX has folded polar routes into habit. Vandenberg rewards patience with access—slingshots that skip continents. Competitors still explain delays. SpaceX ships another shell.

Elon planted a cost axe at the base of the rocket equation and let it swing. Now the math bends for trucks of satellites. The coast hears ignition before it sees light. Another shell rises. Another blank spot on the map quits complaining.